THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PUBLICATIONS 
IN  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

EDITED  BY 

ERNEST  D.   BURTON  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

THEODORE  G.   SOARES 


HANDBOOKS  OF  ETHICS  AND  RELIGION 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


OHE  UIUVKKSI'JL'Y  OF  OHIOAGO  PBES3 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


tHI  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMP1HT 

SBWTOEI 

TDK  CAMBEHK3E  TJNIVERSITT  PRESS 

LO»DOB 

THE  MARTJZEN-KABUSHIKI-KA1SHA 

1OKTO,  OSAKA,   KIOTO,  rUKUOKA,  SliNUAl 

IHK  HUSSION  BOOK  OOHPAHT 


THE  RELIGIONS 

. — 

OF  THE  WORLD 


By 

GEORGE  A.  BARTON 

Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Semitic  Language! 
in  Bryn  Maior  College 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT  1917  and  1919  BY 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  July  1917 

Second  Impression  October  1917 

Third  Impression  June  1918 

Second  Edition  August  1919 

Second  Impression  December  »0»o 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Prea 

Chicago.  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


TO 

MORRIS  JASTROW,  JR. 

COLLEAGUE,  FRIEND 
MASTERLY  INVESTIGATOR 

OP  THE 
BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN  RELIGION 


PREFACE 

In  attempting  a  study  of  the  religions  of  the  world, 
one  is  confronted  with  the  problem  of  the  order  in 
which  they  should  be  taken  up.  The  order  in  which 
they  are  presented  in  the  following  pages  is  that  which 
the  writer  has  found  most  advantageous  in  his  own 
classroom:  (i)  an  outline  of  primitive  religions;  (2)  the 
religions  of  Babylonia  and  Egypt,  which  approach  most 
closely  to  the  primitive  type;  (3)  the  other  religions 
which  have  sprung  from  the  Hamito-Semitic  stock,  the 
religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Judaism,  and  Mohammedanism ; 
(4)  passing  eastward  to  Persia,  the  study  of  Zoroastri- 
anism;  (5)  the  religions  of  India,  China,  and  Japan; 
(6)  the  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome;  and  (7)  the  study 
of  Christianity. 

To  some  it  may  seem  unnecessary  to  treat  the 
religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Judaism,  and  Christianity  in  a 
textbook  which  forms  a  part  of  an  educational  series  in 
which  whole  volumes  are  devoted  to  these  subjects, 
but  no  book  on  the  religions  of  the  world  would  be 
complete  from  which  a  treatment  of  these  great  religions 
was  absent,  and  it  often  gives  the  student  a  new  sense 
of  the  value  of  these  religions  to  study  them  briefly  in 
comparison  with  the  other  religions  of  the  world.  If  the 
time  devoted  to  the  course  is  too  brief  to  permit  the  study 
of  so  many  religions,  and  if  the  religions  of  Israel  and 
Christianity  are  studied  in  other  parts  of  the  curriculum, 
chapters  iv,  v,  and  xv  may  be  omitted  from  the  course. 

It  is  believed  that  teachers  will  find  it  useful  to  have 
then*  pupils  master  the  outline  of  each  religion  given 

a 


x  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

here,  and  then  make  it  the  basis  of  wider  reading.  As 
the  library  facilities  of  colleges  differ  greatly,  two  lists  of 
reading  are  given  at  the  end  of  each  chapter.  If  con- 
siderable time  can  be  given  to  the  course,  and  the 
library  contains  the  necessary  material,  the  student 
should  be  required  to  look  up  the  references  cited  under 
"Class  A."  If  the  library  facilities  are  meager,  or  the 
time  allotted  to  the  course  is  brief,  then  those  cited 
under  "Class  B "  should  be  used.  If  the  teacher  deems 
it  wiser  to  direct  the  student  who  has  mastered  the 
text  of  this  book  to  investigate  special  topics,  such 
topics  are  suggested  in  Appendix  I,  where  a  list  of  books 
that  will  be  of  use  in  such  investigation  will  also  be 
found. 

A  student  who  works  by  himself  should  make  him- 
self familiar  with  the  text  of  this  volume  as  already 
suggested,  and,  after  doing  such  other  reading  as  the 
works  available  may  permit,  should  write  a  brief  book 
on  the  subject  for  himself.  For  his  guidance  an  outline 
of  such  a  book  will  be  found  in  Appendix  II.  Those 
who  take  the  course  under  a  teacher  will  find  this 
exercise  of  writing  their  own  books  most  helpful. 

The  writer's  thanks  are  due  to  Professor  A.  V. 
Williams  Jackson  of  Columbia  for  reading  and  criticizing 
the  chapter  on  Zoroastrianism,  to  Professor  Franklin 
Edgerton  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  for  like  help 
in  the  chapters  on  the  religions  of  India,  and  to  his 
colleagues  Professors  Tenney  Frank  and  James  F. 
Ferguson  for  rendering  a  similar  service  for  the  chapters 
on  Rome  and  Greece. 

GEORGE  A.  BARTON 

BRYN  MAWR,  PA. 
May,  1917 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

By  the  insertion  in  the  present  edition  of  a  chapter 
devoted  to  the  religion  of  the  Celts  and  Teutons,  a  defect 
of  the  first  edition  of  this  little  book  has  been  corrected. 
A  chapter  has  also  been  added  on  the  unfolding  of  the 
idea  of  God  in  the  religions  of  the  world.  This  chapter 
will,  in  part,  serve  as  a  review  of  the  student's  previous 
work  and,  it  is  hoped,  direct  his  mind  to  a  kind  of  com- 
parative study  of  religion  that  is  profitable  and  inspiring. 
Minor  errors  have  been  corrected  here  and  there  through- 
out the  book.  It  is  hoped  that  in  its  new  form  the 
volume  may  continue  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  body  of 
students  whose  use  of  the  first  edition  made  a  second 
possible. 

GEORGE  A.  BARTON 

July,  1919 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  RELIGIONS  or  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES      .    .    .  i 

n.  THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA     .     .  16 

III.  THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT 35 

IV.  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS      .    .  58 
V.  JUDAISM 79 

VI.  MOHAMMEDANISM 97 

VII.  ZOROASTRIANISM 117 

VIII.  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS 138 

IX.  BUDDHISM  AND  JALNISM 158 

X.  HINDUISM 178 

XI.  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA 201 

XII.  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN 223 

XIII.  THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE 242 

XIV.  THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME 265 

XV.  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS    .     .  286 

XVI.  CHRISTIANITY 313 

XVII.  THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  IN  THE 

RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 335 

APPENDIX  I 360 

APPENDIX  II 374 

APPENDIX  HI 379 

INDEX 391 

m 


CHAPTER  1 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES 

And  yet  he  left  not  himself  without  witness. — Acts  14: 17. 

i.  Primitive  peoples,  as  the  term  is  here  employed, 
are  the  peoples  who  have  never  developed  sufficiently 
to  embody  their  ideas  in  literature.  They  are  the 
savage  and  barbarous  tribes  of  ancient  and  modern 
times.  According  to  the  generally  accepted  theory  of 
evolution,  all  the  civilized  peoples  of  the  world  have 
arisen  from  a  savage  ancestry.  The  primitive  peoples 
of  antiquity  may  be  known  to  some  extent  through 
survivals  of  their  ideas  and  customs  among  their  civilized 
descendants,  as  well  as  through  occasional  descriptions 
of  their  institutions  by  ancient  writers;  those  of  modern 
times,  from  the  descriptions  of  travelers  and  mission- 
aries and  from  the  investigations  of  anthropologists. 

Between  the  lowest  and  the  highest  savages  there 
are  many  gradations.  Anthropologists,  however,  recog- 
nize four  well-defined  classes  of  peoples:  those  of 
the  early  Stone  Age,  often  called  Paleolithic;  those  of 
the  later  Stone  Age,  also  called  Neolithic;  those  of  the 
Copper  Age;  and  those  of  the  Bronze  Age.  This 
classification  is  based  on  the  degree  of  intelligence 
manifested  in  making  implements.  Paleolithic  man 
did  not  shape  the  stones  employed  for  tools.  He 
found,  for  example,  one  shaped  roughly  like  an  ax  and 
used  it  as  an  ax.  Neolithic  man  made  flint  implements 
and  often  became  very  skilful  in  their  manufacture. 


2  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Men  of  the  Copper  Age  learned  to  employ  copper.  The 
passage  from  the  Copper  Age  to  the  Bronze  Age  was 
slow,  as  men  learned  with  difficulty  to  employ  tin  and 
antimony  as  alloys.  Social  and  religious  institutions 
varied  with  the  people's  advancement. 

2.  The  method  of  studying  the  religions  of  uncivilized 
peoples  necessarily  differs  from  the  method  of  studying 
the  religions  of  civilized  races.    In  the  latter  case  we 
turn,  not  only  to  institutions,  but  to  religious  literatures; 
in  the  former  we  can  study  only  then*  institutions  and 
such  myths  and  ideas  as  travelers,  ancient  or  modern, 
have  collected  from  them.    Myths  were  the  hypotheses 
of  prescientific  men.    By  means  of  them  they  explained, 
in  ways  satisfactory  to  themselves,  the  world  and  their 
religious  institutions.    Myths  accordingly  often  aid  us 
in  ascertaining  fundamental  religious  conceptions. 

3.  The  psychological  unity  of  man  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  results  of  modern  investigation.    There  are,  of 
course,  details  in  which  the  religion  of  any  people  differs 
from   that  of  every  other  people.    Indeed,   in   some 
respects  the  religion  of  every  individual  is  peculiarly  his 
own;    it  differs  in  some  details  from  the  religion  of 
everyone  else,  for  the  facts  of  the  universe  impress  each 
mind  differently.    Nevertheless  the  variations  are  far 
less  than  one  would  expect.     The  surprising  fact  is 
that  in  all  parts  of  the  world  the  minds  of  men,  as  they 
react  to  the  fundamental  facts  of  existence,  work  in  so 
nearly  the  same  way.    This  likeness  of  the  psychological 
processes  of  man  is  one  of  the  most  striking  discoveries 
of  modern  times.     One  writer  declares: 

The  laws  of  human  thought  are  frightfully  rigid,  are  indeed 
automatic   and  inflexible.    The  human  mind  seems  to  be  a 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES          3 

machine;  give  it  the  same  materials,  and  it  will  infallibly  grind 
out  the  same  product.1  ....  Under  ordinary  conditions  of 
human  life  there  are  many  more  impressions  on  the  senses  which 
are  everywhere  the  same  or  similar  than  the  reverse.  Hence 
the  ideas,  both  primary  and  secondary,  drawn  from  them  are 
much  more  likely  to  resemble  than  to  differ.2 

While,  then,  early  religions  differ  in  innumerable 
minor  details,  in  the  great  fundamental  conceptions 
they  are  the  same.  Of  many  secondary  conceptions  too 
it  may  be  said  that  they  are  all  but  universal.  It  is 
not  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  follow  out  the  details 
in  which  the  religions  of  primitive  peoples  differ,  but 
rather  to  glance  at  the  fundamental  ideas  and  institu- 
tions which  they  have  in  common.  Such  a  survey  is 
necessary  because  these  fundamental  ideas  form  the 
basis  of  the  religions  of  civilized  peoples,  and  many  of 
these  institutions  have  persisted  for  centuries  in  civilized 
religions,  often  producing  far-reaching  consequences. 

4.  The  universality  of  religion  is  now  generally 
conceded.  Man  is  a  worshiping  animal;  he  is 
"incurably  religious."  Certain  Australian  tribes,  re- 
ported on  by  Spencer  and  Gillen,  appear  at  first  sight 
to  be  exceptions  to  this  rule,  but  a  closer  study  of  the 
facts  leads  one  to  believe  that  religion  is  not  entirely 
absent.3  "Religion  is  man's  attitude  toward  the 
universe  regarded  as  a  social  and  ethical  force,"  and 
there  is  no  satisfactory  historical  evidence  that  since 
man  was  man  there  have  been  peoples  who  did  not 

'D.  G.  Brinton,  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples  (New  York, 
1897),  p.  6. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

3  C.  H.  Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions  (New  York, 


4  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

attempt  to  enter  into  social  relations  with  the  extra- 
human  powers  of  the  universe. 

5.  The  nature  of  religion. — Among  primitive  peoples 
the  essential  part  of  religion  is  not  belief,  but  practice. 
The  primary  aim  is  to  avert  the  anger  of  supernatural 
beings  and  to  secure  their  aid  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
As  among  men  anger  is  aroused  by  improper  conduct, 
so  it  is  believed  to  be  with  the  gods.     One  must  be 
careful  to  do  the  things  that  are  pleasing  to  them.    The 
gods  are  supposed  to  be  pleased,  not  with  what  men 
think  of  them,  but  by  the   service  that  is  rendered 
them.     Religion  is  the  proper  manners  to  be  observed 
in  approaching  the  gods.     Carelessness  as  to  the  ritual 
which  embodies  the  proper  etiquette  toward  them  is 
thought  to  arouse  the  anger  of  deities  and  spirits.    The 
emphasis  in  early  religions  is  quite  different  from  that 
in  the  so-called  positive    religions.    Nevertheless  we 
can  trace  in  early  religions  certain  beliefs. 

6.  The  soul  is  among  all  men  intimately  connected 
with  religion.    All  tribes,  even  the  lowest,  observe  that 
a  human  being  is  made  up  of  two  parts,  the  body  of 
flesh  and  bones,  and  an  impalpable  something  that  lives 
within.    This  impalpable  something,  or  soul,  is  called 
by  various  names,  but  belief  in  it  is  universal.    Among 
the  lowest  Australian  tribes  it  is  not  as  well  denned  as 
among  more  advanced  peoples,  but  the  belief  is  still 
there,  and  a  man's  Murup  or  soul  may,  when  he  sleeps, 
go  off  and  talk  even  with  the  Mumps  of  the  dead.1 
Among  savage  peoples  the  soul  is  thought  to  have  a 
material  form.    They  cannot  otherwise  conceive  of  it. 

1  See  A.  W.  Howitt,  The  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia 
(New  York,  1904),  pp.  434-42. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES          5 

Perhaps  a  man's  shadow,  which,  in  his  ignorance  of 
optics,  is  to  the  savage  inexplicable,  contributed  origi- 
nally to  this  belief.  Souls  were  not,  however,  always 
thought  of  as  existing  in  human  form;  sometimes  they 
were  conceived  in  animal  shapes.  Early  men  generally 
identified  the  soul  with  the  breath,  since  they  noticed 
that  a  dead  man  no  longer  breathed.  They  seem  not 
to  have  thought,  however,  of  any  one  part  of  the  body 
as  the  home  of  the  soul. 

7.  Life  after  death  is  another  of  man's  universal 
beliefs.     It  is  only  among  a  few  modern  thinkers,  in 
whom  the  elemental  intuitions  are  "sicklied  o'er  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought,"  that  it  has  ever  been  doubted. 
The  universality  of  man's  faith  in  the  survival  of  the 
soul  after  death  is  attested  in  part  by  the  universality 
of  the  belief  in  ghosts,  and  in  the  uniform  practice  of 
placing  food  in  the  tombs  of  the  departed.    Among  all 
peoples,  whether  in  the  two  Americas,  in  Central  Africa, 
in  Australia,  or  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Egypt 
or  Palestine,  not  only  food  and  drink,  but  the  utensils 
that  the  departed  had  used  in  life  were  buried  with 
him.      Along  with  quantities  of  delicacies  Queen  Tai, 
of  Egypt's  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  placed  in  the  tomb  of 
her  parents  splendid  easy  chairs,  a  bed,  chests  of  cloth- 
ing, and  even  a  chariot  in  which  they  might  ride! 
Similarly  the  Indians  bury  with  their  brave  his  bow  and 
arrows  for  use  in  the  happy  hunting-grounds  beyond 
the  setting  sun. 

8.  The  underworld,  while  not  universally  believed  in, 
plays  an  important  part  among  many  peoples.     Except 
where  the  bodies  of  the  dead  are  burned,  or  where,  as  in 
Northern  Alaska,  the  earth  is  continuously  frozen,  they 


6  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

are  buried  in  the  ground.  Where  some  are  deposited 
for  a  time  in  trees,  as  in  Australia,  they  are  ultimately 
buried  in  the  earth.1  Naturally  it  was  inferred  that 
the  soul  descended  into  the  earth  with  the  body.  In 
many  parts  of  the  world,  accordingly,  there  is  supposed 
to  be  a  great  cavern  in  the  heart  of  the  earth  in  which 
the  dead  abide.  Such  was  the  Aralu  of  the  Babylonians, 
the  Sheol  of  the  Hebrews,  the  Hades  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  Hel  of  the  Scandinavians.  This  underworld 
was  generally  thought  to  be  a  dark  and  cheerless  place. 
The  dead  longed  for  the  free  life  of  the  upper  air  where 
the  sun  shone.  Among  some  races,  as  civilization 
advanced,  this  underworld  was  divided  into  Elysian 
fields  hi  which  the  good  passed  cheerful  and  happy  lives, 
and  places  of  punishment  in  which  the  wicked  received 
the  reward  of  their  deeds.  Belief  in  an  underworld  is 
not,  however,  universal.  Peoples  living  near  the  sea 
have  sometimes  thought  of  the  dead  as  dwelling  beyond 
the  deep;  others  have  thought  of  them  as  living  in  high 
mountains;  still  others  have  thought  of  them  as  living 
in  the  sun,  moon,  or  stars.2  Several  peoples  who  have 
begun  by  thinking  of  the  dead  as  in  an  underworld 
have,  as  they  advanced,  transferred  that  dwelling  to 
the  sky  or  to  a  heaven  above  the  sky.  Such  a  change 
can  be  traced  among  the  Egyptians. 

9.  Animism. — As  early  man  was  conscious  that  he 
himself  possessed  a  spirit  or  soul,  so  he  attributed  a 
similar  spirit  to  everything  about  him,  not  only  to 
animals,  in  whom  the  presence  of  a  spirit  was  manifested 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  The  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia 
(London,  1904),  pp.  505-56. 

a  See  Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions,  §  65. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES          7 

in  action,  but  to  trees,  rocks,  springs,  plants,  weapons, 
heavenly  bodies,  etc.  This  general  belief  of  men  is 
called  animism.  These  spirits  might  be  weak  or 
powerful,  kind  or  unkind,  helpful  or  hurtful,  but  in  their 
midst  man  was  compelled  to  live.  He  must,  accordingly, 
come  into  relationship  with  them.  In  course  of  time  the 
good  and  more  powerful  spirits  developed  into  gods. 

10.  Transmigration. — One  of  the  earliest  and  most 
persistent  beliefs  is  that  souls  are  reborn  or  reincarnated 
as  human  beings,  beasts,  plants,  or  inanimate  things. 
The  rise  of  such  a  belief  is  natural.    If  at  the  moment 
of  a  child's  birth  a  person  dies,  it  is  natural  to  infer 
that  the  spirit  has  passed  from  one  body  to  the  other. 
Such  a  belief  has  been  held  among  savages  in  America, 
Africa,  Asia,  and  Oceania,  as  well  as  by  the  Brahmins, 
Buddhists,  and  Plato.1 

11.  Gods  are  powerful  and  fully  personified  spirits 
with  whom  clans  or  tribes  are  believed  to  have  estab- 
lished friendly  relations.    It  is  not  always  easy  to  dis- 
tinguish a  god  from  a  spirit  or  ghost.    The  spirit  or 
ghost  may  be  regarded  as  just  as  powerful  in  his  sphere 
as  Ashur  or  Jupiter  in  his,  but  the  sphere  of  the  god  is 
larger  and  his  functions  are  more  varied.    In  the  earliest 
times  the  gods  appear  to  have  been  the  spirits  of  springs 
or  of  fertile  localities.    As  man  was  dependent  on  their 
blessings,  it  was  easy  to  regard  them  as  powerful  and 
beneficent.    If  the  god  was  the  god  of  a  locality,  it 
might  be  thought  to  dwell  in  a  tree  or  a  rock.    Later 
the  sun,  moon,  certain  stars,  the  wind,  ram,  and  even 
the  sky  were  personified  as  gods,  i.e.,  their  spirits  were 
thought  to  be  influential  in  human  life,  so  that  man  for 

1  See  Toy,  op.  tit.,  §§  55  ff. 


8  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

his  own  good  should  cultivate  friendly  relations  with 
them.  At  times  the  local  spirit  of  a  tribe's  dwelling- 
place  became  associated  with  the  tribe  as  its  god,  and 
was  gradually  detached  from  its  original  locality.  Thus 
tribal  gods  arose.  As  human  society  is  constituted  of 
men  and  women,  so  the  gods  were  thought  to  be  male 
and  female. 

12.  Fetishism. — In  many  parts  of  the  world  a  power 
akin  to  that  of  man  is  supposed  to  reside  in  certain 
inanimate  things.    When  such  objects  are  parts  of  an 
animal,  such  as  bones,  claws,   tails,  feet,  etc.,  or  of 
vegetables,  they  are  probably  thought  to  retain  some- 
thing of  the  power  of  the  living  thing  to  which  they 
belonged.     Fetish  objects  in  West  Africa  are  believed 
to  be  inhabited  by  spirits.    In  Australia   an   object 
called  a  churinga  is  regarded  as  the  abode  of  the  soul  of 
an  ancestor  endowed  with  marvelous  power.. 

13.  Idols. — Closely  related  to  fetishism  is  the  practice 
of  making  images  of  the  gods,  although  idolatry  is  a 
step  higher  in  the  process  of  evolution.    An  idol  is  an 
image  or  an  object  consciously  made  by  man  to  rep- 
resent his  god.     It  is  a  distinct  advance  when  it  is 
supposed  that  a  spirit  which  originally  dwelt  in  a  spring, 
or  a  rock,  or  a  tree,  can  be  persuaded  to  make  its  dwelling 
hi  an  object  of  man's  own  manufacture,  so  that  he  may 
carry  its  presence  with  him  continually. 

14.  Social  organization  has  everywhere  affected  the 
conceptions  entertained  of  the  gods.     It  is  natural  for 
men  to  think  of  the  earth  as  a  goddess — as  the  great 
mother  of  inexhaustible  fertility.    It  is  also  natural  for 
them  to  think  of  the  rain-deity,  who  enables  the  earth  to 
bear  and  whose  thunderbolts  are  like  a  warrior's  darts, 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES          9 

as  masculine.  But  whether  the  god  or  the  goddess  is 
regarded  as  the  head  of  the  divine  family  is  determined 
by  the  social  organization  of  human  society.  In  ma- 
triarchal communities  a  goddess  is  the  superior  deity, 
in  patriarchal  communities,  a  god.1 

15.  Environment  and  economic  conditions  also  had 
their  influence  upon  the  conceptions  of  the  gods.     In 
regions  like  Arabia,  where  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
land  is  utterly  barren  and  the  fertile  oases  are  the  rare 
exception,  the  struggle  for  existence  is  severe.     Deities 
of  fertility  were  accordingly  there  given  great  promi- 
nence.    Such  deities  have  been  worshiped  in  all  parts 
of  the  world,  but  in  these  desert  regions  they  have  been 
given  special  importance. 

16.  Ceremonies. — Early  religious  expression  consists 
largely  of  ceremonies.     These  are  of  social  and  economic 
significance.  -  They    consist    of    harvest    festivals,    or, 
among  pastoral  peoples,  festivals  of  the  yeaning  time, 
at  which  the  gladness  of  the  populace  finds  expression 
as  a  tribute  to  deity.    Among  uncivilized  peoples  these 
feasts  are  often  orgies  of  a  bestial  nature.    When,  as 
among  the  Semites,  the  feast  was  held  in  honor  of  a 
deity  of  fertility,   sexual   license  was  thought  to  be 
pleasing    to    such    deities.2    But    similar    license    was 
granted  at  such  times  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world.3 
At  such  feasts  wives  were  often  selected  and  marriages 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious 
(New  York,  1902),  pp.  119-21. 

*See  the  article  "  Hierodouloi "  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics,  VI;  and  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  pp.  nof. 

» See,  for  example,  J.  Dowd,  The  Negro  Races  (New  York,  1907), 
p.  137;  and  for  the  Fiji  Islanders,  J.  G.  Frazer,  The  Belief  in  Immortality 
(London,  1913),  pp.  433  f. 


to  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

consummated.  As  religion  covered  the  whole  of  life, 
marriage  feasts  had  a  certain  religious  significance. 

Birth,  too,  was  attended  with  certain  other  cere- 
monies. But  most  important  of  all  were  the  ceremonies 
through  which  young  men,  and  in  parts  of  the  world 
young  women,  must  pass  at  the  age  of  puberty.  These 
initiated  the  young  people  into  the  full  life  of  the  tribe 
as  adult  members;  as  adults  they  also  came  into  full 
relationship  with  the  god  of  the  tribe.  The  ceremonies 
were  usually  such  as  to  try  the  courage  of  the  initiate, 
especially  of  the  male,  and  to  predispose  the  mind  to 
religious  impressions.  Often  the  men  of  a  tribe  have 
for  long  periods  been  organized  into  secret  societies 
which  had  a  religious  or  magical  significance.1 

i7._Taboo. — Uncivilized  men  conceive  of  the  super- 
natural as  a  kind  of  divine  electricity  with  which  many 
things  in  the  world  are  charged.  If  things  so  charged  are 
not  handled  in  certain  ways,  the  holiness,  or  supernatural 
power,  will  discharge  itself  and  harm  the  individual. 
From  this  general  conception  many  prohibitions  have 
arisen.  These  are  found  among  all  peoples  in  early 
stages  of  development,  though  they  vary  in  different 
tribes.  The  word  "taboo"  is  taken  from  a  Polynesian 
dialect,  where  the  phenomenon  was  first  studied.  Of 
course  many  taboos  prevent  activities  the  harmfulness 
of  which  are  purely  imaginary.  Taboos  have  had  an 
important  influence  in  the  development  of  ethics. 
Taboos  control  the  actions  of  men,  not  only  in  daily  life, 
but  during  their  religious  festivals  and  ceremonies, 
though  the  taboos  that  are  in  force  at  such  times  often 
differ  from  those  that  control  daily  life. 

1  See  H.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies  (New  York,  1908). 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES         II 

1 8.  Totemism  is  the  name  given  to  the  system  of 
tribal    subdivision    denoted    by    totems.    Totems   are 
natural  objects,  usually  animals,  though  they  are  some- 
times plants,  assumed  as  the  emblem  of  a  clan  or  family. 
The  name  is  derived  from  the  languages  of  the  American 
Indians,    among   whom    totemism   was   first   studied. 
The  totem  is  sometimes  regarded  as  the  ancestor  of  the 
tribe  and  is  often  closely  associated  in  one  way  or 
another  with  its  deity.    Totemism  exists  in  many  parts 
of  the  world  among  tribes  in  a  low  stage  of  development, 
though  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  has  been  universal. 
A  number  of  the  highly  civilized  nations  of  antiquity 
appear,  however,  to  have  passed  through  a  totemistic 
stage  of  development. 

Totemism  was  a  kind  of  imaginary  social  alliance, 
offensive  and  defensive,  between  a  group  of  human 
beings  and  the  class  of  animals  or  plants  to  which  the 
totem  belonged.  The  clan  and  its  totem  were  usually 
supposed  to  be  akin  to  one  another.  In  many  parts  of 
the  world  exogamous  marriage  was  controlled  by  the 
totem.  If  the  totem  of  one  tribe  would  eat  the  totem 
of  another,  the  two  could  not  intermarry.  Among 
many  tribes  it  was  forbidden  to  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
totem.  Sometimes  the  animal  totem  was  regarded  as 
especially  valuable  for  sacrifices.  In  totemistic  groups 
gods,  men,  and  animals,  or  plants  are  thought  to  be 
embraced  in  one  social  organization.  Totemism  is, 
therefore,  intimately  connected  with  religion. 

19.  Sacrifice. — In  all  parts  of  the  world  men  have 
offered  to  the  gods  gifts  of  food.    They  have  assumed 
that  the  gods  needed  sustenance  as  much  as  they  them- 
selves.   These    gifts    have,    however,    not    consisted 


12  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

merely  of  grain  or  bloodless  offerings,  but  of  animal  life 
as  well,  and,  among  many  peoples,  even  of  human 
victims.  Only  a  few  of  the  higher  religions  have 
reached  a  stage  of  evolution  in  which  animal  sacrifice 
is  discarded,  although  human  sacrifice  survives  only 
among  the  lowest  savages.  At  times  the  entire  victim 
has  been  burned  as  an  offering  to  the  deity;  at  tunes 
the  flesh  has  been  consumed  by  the  worshipers,  while 
only  the  bones,  the  entrails,  and  the  blood  were  offered 
to  the  deity.  In  some  rituals  the  blood  has  been  poured 
out  on  the  earth;  in  others,  care  is  taken  to  prevent 
this,  lest  the  earth  become  surcharged  with  its  sacred 
power. 

The  reason  why  animal  sacrifice  is  a  part  of  all 
early  religion  is  obscure.  It  is  regarded  by  some  as 
a  gift  to  the  gods  of  the  most  costly  kind  of  food;1  by 
others,  as  a  meal  in  which  the  kinship  or  social  bond 
between  gods  and  men  is  renewed  by  both  partaking  of 
the  flesh  of  a  totemic  victim  akin  to  both;*  by  still 
others  its  significance  is  found  in  the  bursting  forth  of 
the  victim's  blood,  the  sight  of  which  is  supposed  to 
appease  the  offended  god.3  Whatever  the  explanation 
of  the  practice  of  animal  sacrifice  may  be,  it  is  clear 
that  all  men  have,  at  a  certain  stage  of  religious  develop- 
ment, believed  that  through  it  they  entered  into  renewed 
communion  with  their  gods.  When  great  danger  has 
threatened  a  community,  so  that  the  deity  has  been 

ISo  F.  B.  Jevons,  Comparative  Religion  (Cambridge,  1913),  p.  35. 

*So  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites  (London,  1904),  Lectures 
VI-XI. 

»So  S.  I.  Curtiss,  Primitive  Semitic  Religion  Today  (New  York, 
1902),  p.  216. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES        13 

thought  to  be  estranged,  the  most  costly  victims  have 
been  offered  in  order  to  regain  the  aid  of  the  god.  Under 
such  circumstances  human  sacrifices  have  been  offered 
by  peoples  who  had  generally  discarded  the  practice. 
Such  was  the  case  when  at  Marseilles  a  man  was  sacri- 
ficed to  avert  a  pestilence;1  among  the  Aztecs,  when  in 
the  fifteenth  century  human  sacrifices  were  offered  to 
avert  a  famine;2  and  among  the  ancient  Moabites, 
when  the  king  sacrificed  his  son  to  gain  victory  in  war 
(II  Kings,  chap.  3). 

20.  Circumcision  is  a  rite  practiced  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  though  not  by  all  peoples.     It  was  employed 
by  the  ancient  Egyptians,  by  the  Semites,  by  many 
African  tribes,  by  peoples  of  Australasia  and  Polynesia. 
Among  some  peoples  both  men  and  women  were  sub- 
jected to  it.    At  times  great  religious  significance  is 
attached  to  it.    For  example,  among  the  Hebrews  it 
was  interpreted  as  the  sign  of  the  covenant  between 
the  people  and  Yahweh  (Jehovah).    The  reason  for  the 
origin  of  the  practice  of  circumcision  is  obscure.    At 
times  it  has  been  explained  as  a  sacrifice  of  a  portion  of 
the   generative   organs   to  the  goddess  of  fertility  in 
order  to  insure  fertility;  others  have  seen  in  the  rite  the 
sacrifice  of  a  part  of  the  individual  instead  of  the  whole; 
while  others  explain  it  as  a  simple  device  to  facilitate 
procreation. 

21.  Magic. — Side  by  side  with  early  religions  one 
finds  magical  practices,  and  there  has  been  much  dis- 
cussion as  to  whether  magic  originated  before  religion 
or  whether  it  is  a  degenerate  form  of  religion.    In 

1  Jevons,  Comparative  Religion,  p.  32. 
p.  33. 


14  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

religion  men  appeal  to  higher  powers  to  be  gracious; 
they  seek  to  gain  the  good  will  of  gods  by  offerings  and 
prayer;  in  magic  they  seek  to  force  supernatural  powers 
to  do  their  will.  There  is  in  magic  no  reverence,  but 
compulsion  only.  It  is  believed  that  the  utterance  of 
certain  words  or  the  performance  of  certain  ceremonies 
compels  spirits  to  do  what  men  desire.  It  is  impossible 
to  tell  whether  religion  or  magic  is  the  older;  they  may 
have  been  coeval.  At  all  events,  they  have  existed  side 
by  side  in  history.  Possibly  religion  was  the  sponta- 
neous attitude  of  the  earliest  men  toward  spirits  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  excite  fear,  while  magic  was  the 
contemporaneous  human  attitude  toward  lesser  spirits. 
22.  Importance  of  primitive  religion. — The  religions 
of  all  the  civilized  nations  had  their  root  in  the  religion 
of  an  uncivilized  people.  As  some  of  the  material  of  a 
tree  comes  from  the  earth  through  its  roots,  though 
more  comes  from  the  air  through  the  leaves,  so  civilized 
religions,  however  much  they  owe  to  the  inspiration  of 
great  souls  after  the  rise  of  civilization,  owe  something 
to  the  inheritance  of  the  remote,  uncivilized  past.  The 
beliefs  of  primitive  men  are  often  unintelligent  and 
their  practices  often  revolting,  but  through  them  the 
way  outward  to  the  infinite  was  opened  just  a  little. 
Each  god  represented  to  his  worshipers  in  shadow, 
however  faint,  some  rudimentary  conception  of  the  All- 
Father,  and  we  need  not  doubt  that  through  his  worship 
there  came  to  the  worshiper  in  some  degree  the  inspira- 
tion and  courage  that  come  from  communion  with  God. 
The  universal  presence  among  uncivilized  men  of  religion 
of  some  sort  is  evidence  that  in  no  part  of  the  world  has 
God  "left  himself  without  a  witness." 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  PRIMITIVE  PEOPLES        15 
SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  i :  A.  H.  Keane,  Man  Past  and  Present  (Cambridge, 
1899),  pp.  8-23. 

On  sees.  2,  5:  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  ad  ed.  (Lon- 
don, 1894),  pp.  15-20. 

On  sec.  3:  D.  G.  Brinton,  The  Religion  of  Primitive  Peoples 
(New  York,  1897),  pp.  i-n. 

On  sec.  4:  C.  H.  Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions 
(New  York,  1913),  §§  1-12. 

On  sees.  6,  10:    C.  H.  Toy,  ibid.,  §§  18-45. 

On  sees.  7,  8:    C.  H.  Toy,  ibid.,  §§  45-70. 

On  sec.  9:  The  article  "Animism"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics,  I,  535-37. 

On  sec.  ii :  Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  635-70;  or  W.  R.  Smith,  op.  cit., 
pp.  28-48. 

On  sec.  12:  J.  B.  Jevons,  An  Introduction  to  the  History  of 
Religion,  pp.  163-69. 

On  sec.  13:    Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  1091-94. 

On  sees.  14,  15:  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins, 
Social  and  Religious  (New  York,  1902),  chap,  iii,  or  chaps, 
ii  and  iii. 

On  sec.  16:    Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  101-52. 

On  sec.  17:    Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  581-624. 

On  sec.  18:    Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  542-59,  or  422-559. 

On  sec.  19:  Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  1027-84;  or  Jevons,  op.  cit.,  chaps. 
xi  and  xii. 

On  sec.  20:  The  article  "Circumcision,"  in  Hastings'  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  III,  659-80. 

On  sec.  21 :    Toy,  op.  cit.,  §§  883-904. 

CLASS  B 

D.  G.  Brinton,  The  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples  (New  York, 
1897). 


CHAPTER  H 
THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA 

The  holy  Tigris,  the  holy  Euphrates, 
The  holy  scepter  of  Enlil 
Establish  Kharsag; 
They  give  abundance. 


O  lord  of  darkness,  protect  man! 
0  lord  of  light,  protect  man! 
O  lord  of  the  field,  protect  man! 
O  lord  of  the  sanctuary,  protect  man! 

O  divine  lord,  protect  the  little  habitation! 
0  well  of  the  mighty  abyss,  give  protection! 

To  Ninkharsag  belongs  demon-enchantment; 

Brilliant  enchantment  her  hand  created; 

Bada  opposed  to  her  his  word. 
"The  house  is  bright,"  may  she  say! 
"The  house  is  good,"  may  she  say! 
"A  thing  lofty,  brightest  of  all,"  may  she  say! 
"Unspeakable  with  the  brightness 

Of  many  cedar  fires,"  may  she  say! 

O  mother,  brilliant  goddess,  come!    The  flour  withhold  not 

May  thy  might  man's  garden  restore! 

O  my  mother,  divine  lady,  is  there  no  might  with  thee  ? 

To  expel  the  sickness  from  the  land  I  cry  mightily! 

In  the  fold  may  there  be  no  demon! 

Sickness,  fever,  expel! 

— From  the  oldest  known  Babylonian  religious  text.1 

1  Written  about  2800  B.C.     See  G.  A.  Barton,  Miscellaneous  Baby- 
lonian Inscriptions  (New  Haven,  1918),  Part  I,  No.  i. 

16 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      17 

O  lady,  with  outpouring  of  heart  I  earnestly  raise  to  thee 

my  voice!    How  long  ? 
O  lady,  to  thy  servant  speak  pardon,  let  thy  heart  be 

pacified! 

To  thy  servant  who  suffers  pain  grant  favor! 
Thy  neck  turn  to  him!    Receive  his  entreaty! 
Unto  thy  servant  with  whom  thou  art  angry  be  favorable! 
— From  a  prayer  to  Ishtar  of  Agade. 

Unto  the  land  of  No-return,  the  land  of  darkness, 


To  the  house  of  darkness,  the  dwelling  of  Irkalla, 
Unto  the  house  whose  entrance  has  no  exit. 
Along  the  way  whose  going  has  no  return, 
To  the  house  whose  entrance  is  deprived  of  light, 
Where  dust  is  their  food,  their  sustenance  clay, 
Light  they  do  not  see,  in  darkness  they  dwell. 

—From  "Ishtar's  Descent  to  the  Lower  World."1 

23.  Babylonia  lay  in  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
Tigris-Euphrates  Valley,  just  north  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 
In  it  there  developed  one  of  the  two  oldest  civilizations 
of  the  world.  This  civilization  was  produced  by  the 
mingling  of  two  races,  Semites  from  Arabia  and  the 
Sumerians  from  the  mountains  of  the  East.  The  racial 
affinities  of  the  Sumerians  have  not  yet  been  determined. 
The  Semites  wore  long  beards;  the  Sumerians  shaved 
both  their  faces  and  their  heads.2  Gods  in  ancient 
times  were  believed  to  be  attached  to  the  soil,  and, 
when  a  new  people  entered  the  country,  they  felt  com- 
pelled to  seek  the  favor  of  the  gods  of  the  land.3  From 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible  (Philadelphia,  1916), 
Part  II,  chap,  xriv,  §  4,  for  the  whole  poem. 

*  See  Eduard  Meyer,  Sumerier  und  Semiten  in  Babylonien  (Berlin, 
1896). 

JAn  example  of  this  occurs  in  the  Old  Testament:  II  Kings 
17:24-34. 


i8  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

these  customs,  reflected  in  their  art,  it  is  proved  that  the 
Semites  were  in  the  land  before  the  coming  of  the 
Sumerians,  for  the  beardless  Sumerians  picture  their 
gods  with  Semitic  beards!  While  the  Semites  were 
first  in  the  land,  the  Sumerians  were  the  inventors  of 
Babylonian  writing,1  and,  apparently,  of  the  higher 
elements  of  the  civilization. 

24.  The  Semitic  background  of  the  Babylonian 
religion  is  of  fundamental  importance.  The  Semites 
in  Arabia,  their  cradle  land,  were  compelled  by  the 
struggle  for  existence  in  that  barren  country  to  advance 
somewhat  beyond  most  savages  of  that  far-off  time. 
They  were  nevertheless  still  savages.  The  world  was 
to  them  animistic;  they  had,  apparently,  their  totems, 
and  their  lives  were  controlled  by  many  taboos.  On 
account  of  the  poverty  of  the  country,  their  social 
organization  was  matriarchal,  and  they  imagined  that 
the  relations  of  their  gods  to  one  another  resembled 
their  own.  Their  chief  deity  was,  therefore,  a  goddess, 
whom  they  called  Athtar,  or  Ishtar,  or  Attar,  or  Astar, 
or  Ashtar,  or  Ashtart,  according  to  their  various  dialects.2 
This  name  probably  meant  "the  self-waterer "3  and  was 
given  to  her  because  she  was  the  spirit  of  the  springs  in 
the  oases.  This  goddess  had  a  son,  who  was  the  spirit 
of  the  vegetation  that  grew  by  the  spring;  or,  more  par- 
ticularly, he  was  the  spirit  of  the  date  palm.  The  early 
Semitic  name  of  this  god  has  not  survived.  He  is 

xSee  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Origin  and  Development  of  Babylonian 
Writing  (Leipzig,  1913). 

2  See  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious, 
chap.  iii. 

» See  G.  A.  Barton,  "The  Etymology  of  Ishtar,"  Journal  of  the 
American  Oriental  Society,  XXXI,  355-58. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA     19 

generally  known  as  Tammuz,  a  late  form  of  one  of 
his  Babylonian  names.  It  is  probable  that  along  with 
this  mother  and  son  other  spirits  were  more  vaguely 
worshiped  as  her  husbands — the  spirit  of  the  wind,  of 
the  moon,  of  the  sun,  etc. 

25.  The  prehistoric  period,  ca.  sooo-ca.  3200  B.C. — 
This  period  began  with  the  infiltration  of  Semites  into 
Babylonia.  They  came,  apparently,  from  the  south, 
settling  first  at  Eridu,  which  was  then  at  the  head  of  the 
Persian  Gulf,  afterward  founding  Ur,  Erech,  and  a 
group  of  four  towns,  Girsu,  Nina,  Erim,1  and  Alu-ellu, 
"the  bright  city,"  which  the  Sumerians,  translating 
into  their  language,  called  Uru-azagga.  These  four 
were  afterward  united  into  the  city-state  of  Lagash. 
Each  of  these  cities  was  at  first  the  fortified  residence 
of  a  tribe  or  part  of  a  tribe.  In  the  productive  soil  of 
Babylonia  the  matriarchal  organization  gave  place  to  a 
patriarchal,  and  in  course  of  time  in  many  centers  the 
goddess  was  superseded  by  a  god.  In  some  cases  the 
god  was  the  goddess  herself  masculinized.  Such,  for 
example,  was  Ningirsu,  the  chief  deity  of  Lagash,  whose 
name  means  "Lady  of  Girsu."  At  other  times  the  son 
of  the  mother-goddess  or  one  of  her  husbands  was 
exalted  to  the  chief  place.  This  was  the  case  at  Erech, 
where  Ami,  the  god  of  the  sky,  became  her  father, 
though  in  reality  he  never  displaced  the  goddess  in  the 
affections  of  the  people.  Sometimes,  probably,  she 
was  displaced  by  a  Sumerian  deity,  for  the  Sumerians 
moved  into  Babylonia  long  before  the  dawn  of  history, 
and  it  is  impossible  in  most  cases  to  disentangle  the 
Sumerian  and  Semitic  strands. 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  pp.  184-201. 


20  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  Sumerians  founded  Nippur,  and  perhaps  Adab 
and  Umma.  They  also  overran  the  Semitic  settlements. 
Perhaps  there  had  been  a  Semitic  settlement  at  Nippur, 
for  Enlil,  its  god,  whose  name  means  "lord  of  spirits," 
is  pictured  with  a  beard,  but  the  chief  Importance  of 
that  city  was  gained  from  the  Sumerians.  During  the 
long  prehistoric  period  these  cities  often  fought  and  con- 
quered one  another.  When  a  city  ruled  the  land, 
homage  was  paid  to  its  god  by  all  conquered  cities. 
Meantime  the  local  god  was  not  neglected.  It  thus 
happened  that,  when  written  history  begins,  Enlil  of 
Nippur,  Enki  (Ea)  of  Eridu,  Anu  and  Ishtar  (often 
called  Nana)  of  Erech,  were  worshiped  throughout  the 
country.  Each  of  these  cities  had  for  a  time  held  sway. 

Before  the  end  of  this  period  another  wave  of  Semitic 
migration  had  entered  Northern  Babylonia.  The  new 
immigrants  occupied  the  cities  of  Agade  and  Kish,  the 
gods  of  which  were  respectively  Shamash  (the  sun-god) 
and  Zamama.  Either  from  this  source  or  from  some 
other  the  worship  of  the  sun-god  had  spread  over  the 
country  before  written  history  begins. 

26.  The  early  Sumerian  period,  ca.  32oo-ca.  2800 
B.C. — During  this  period  the  chief  rivalry  was  between 
kings  of  Lagash  and  kings  of  Kish,  though  other  cities 
entered  into  the  struggle  also.  At  times  Lagash  was  in 
the  ascendant;  at  times  Kish.  Many  local  gods  were 
worshiped  and  many  demons  feared.  Enlil  of  Nippur 
(contracted  later  to  Ellil;  also  called  Bel  by  Semites) 
was,  however,  worshiped  by  all.  Kings  of  the  south  as 
well  as  kings  of  the  north  maintained  that  he  gave  them 
lordship  over  the  land.  Nippur  must  have  been  domi- 
nant over  the  whole  land  in  prehistoric  time  long 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      21 

enough  for  Enlil  to  become  recognized  as  the  divine 
suzerain  of  the  whole  country.  Enlil  had  a  spouse, 
Ninlil,  who  is  also  called  the  goddess  Sir,  or  the  serpent- 
goddess. 

Most  of  our  inscriptions  for  this  period  come  from 
Lagash;  more  is  therefore  known  of  its  religion.  From 
the  reigns  of  the  last  two  rulers  of  Lagash  before  the 
close  of  this  period  extensive  lists  of  viands  for  con- 
sumption at  the  festivals  of  various  gods  have  come 
down.  In  addition  to  Enlil  and  Enki  (of  Eridu)  these 
rulers  worshiped  the  deities1  of  their  own  fourfold  city. 

There  were,  too,  a  number  of  other  deities.  Whether 
these  were  originally  different,  or  whether  they  were 
different  epithets  of  those  just  mentioned,  it  is  often 
difficult  to  say.  There  was  a  tendency,  however,  to 
multiply  gods  by  applying  to  known  deities  new  names. 
In  time  the  new  name  and  the  old  were  thought  to 
designate  different  beings.  At  all  events,  the  documents 
of  this  period  present  a  bewildering  perplexity  of  divine 
names.  While  we  cannot  explain  all  of  these,  it  is 
clear  that  there  were  many  deities,  and  that  the  number 
of  these  was  increasing.  Ninkharsag,  "the  lady  of  the 
mountain,"  a  name  brought  from  the  East,  was  an 
epithet  of  Ninlil.  Ningirsu,  however,  received  the 
chief  homage,  and  the  government  of  the  state  was 
carried  on  as  a  theocracy  in  his  name.  At  the  sacri- 
ficial festivals,  which  seem  to  have  been  conducted 
mainly  in  the  interest  of  the  worshipers,  large  quantities 

1  Chief  of  these  was  Ningirsu,  called  in  one  inscription  the  Patesi, 
or  priest-king,  of  the  gods.  Bau,  goddess  of  Uru-azagga,  Nina,  goddess 
of  the  city  Nina,  Ininni,  goddess  of  Erim,  and  Lugal-Erim,  her  mascu- 
line counterpart,  were  also  especially  honored. 


22  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  beer,  black  beer,  oil,  milk,  flour,  fish,  some  kind  of 
vegetable  wine,  and  sheep  were  consumed. 

Lagash  was  a  simple  agricultural  community.  Its 
calendar  was  purely  agricultural.  The  names  of  the 
months  were  derived  in  part  from  the  feasts  of  the  gods 
and  in  part  from  the  agricultural  work  that  fell  in  each 
month.  Most  of  the  months  had  more  than  one  name; 
the  month  March-April,  in  which  the  largest  number  of 
agricultural  activities  were  carried  on,  had  as  many 
as  fifteen  different  names!  Only  one  month-name  was 
connected  with  a  heavenly  body.  This  month  was 
named  from  the  rising  of  a  star,  probably  Sirius.1  The 
heavenly  bodies  played  as  yet  little  part  in  Babylonian 
life  and  thought.  As  early  as  2900  B.C.  Enki  was  re- 
garded as  the  giver  of  intelligence — the  god  of  wisdom. 
The  religious  life  of  Lagash  is  probably  typical  of  that 
in  other  Babylonian  cities  in  this  period.  Similarly 
organized  worship  was  carried  on  at  Eridu  with  the  god 
Enki  at  its  head;  in  Ur,  where  Nannar  was  the  supreme 
deity;  at  Erech,  where  Nana-Ishtar  and  Anu  were  wor- 
shiped; at  Nippur,  the  home  of  Enlil;  at  Kutha,  whose 
chief  god  was  Nergal;  at  Kish,  the  shrine  of  Zamama, 
and  at  other  centers. 

27.  The  first  Akkadian  period  ca.  28oo-ca.  2400  B.C. 
— After  Lugalzaggisi  of  Umma,  who  overthrew  Urkagina 
of  Lagash,  had  enjoyed  a  brief  period  of  supremacy, 
Sargon  of  Agade  took  the  country.  The  chief  deities 
of  Umma  were  Shara  and  Nidaba;  that  of  Agade, 

1  On  the  calendar  of  this  period,  see  G.  A.  Barton,  "Recent  Research 
in  the  Sumerian  Calendar,"  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society, 
XXXIII,  1-9,  and  "Kugler's  Criterion  for  Determining  the  Order  of 
the  Months  in  the  Earliest  Babylonian  Calendar,"  ibid.,  pp.  297-305. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      23 

Shamash,  the  sun-god.  During  this  period  Babylonian 
armies  reached  the  Mediterranean.  After  Agade  had 
ruled  for  nearly  two  hundred  years,  a  foreign  dynasty 
from  Gutium  on  the  east  held  the  land  for  159  years. 
Each  new  dynasty  brought  in  new  gods,  but  the  general 
features  of  the  religion  remained  the  same.  With  the 
domination  of  Agade  the  worship  of  Shamash,  the  sun- 
god,  became  more  general.  His  consort,  the  water- 
goddess  Ai,  later  known  as  Malkatu  or  "the  Queen," 
emerged  in  this  period.  The  moon-god,  Enzu,  also 
became  prominent.  The  dynasty  of  Agade  was  a  part 
of  that  branch  of  the  Semitic  race  known  as  Amurru,  or 
Amorites,  whom  we  find  in  Syria,  and  Palestine.  It  is 
not  surprising,  therefore,  that  under  this  dynasty  two 
gods,  afterward  worshiped  on  the  Mediterranean  coast, 
appear  in  Babylonia.  These  are  Adda,  or  Hadad,  the 
god  of  wind  and  storms,  and  Dagon,  the  corn-god. 

Another  new  feature  of  the  religion  of  this  period  is 
the  deification  of  certain  kings  during  their  lifetime. 
Rimush  and  Naram-Sin  were  both  honored  as  gods. 
Babylonian  kings  did  not  usually  pretend  to  be  divine. 
Why  these  two  were  so  honored  we  cannot  tell. 

Toward  the  end  of  this  period,  probably  under  the 
dynasty  of  Gutium,  Ur-Bau  and  Gudea  flourished  as 
priest-kings  at  Lagash.  Gudea  built  a  palace,  and  both 
repaired  the  temple.  Gudea  placed  a  brazen  sea  in  the 
temple  as  Solomon  did  at  Jerusalem  (I  Kings  7:23-26). 
Both  Ur-Bau  and  Gudea  left  inscriptions  from  which 
we  discover  the  names  of  the  gods  of  Lagash  worshiped 
hi  their  time.  Some  of  the  divine  names  of  the  earlier 
period  have  vanished,  and  several  new  ones  appear,  but 
none  of  these  became  permanently  important.  We 


24  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

learn  from  the  inscriptions  of  Gudea  that  /nil,  Enlil 
(Bel),  and  Enki  (Ea,  who  was  regarded  as  the  god  of  the 
deep)  had  been  grouped  in  a  triad.  These  gods  repre- 
sented respectively  the  sky,  the  earth,  and  the  sea. 

28.  The  dynasties  of  Ur  and  Nisin,  ca.  24oo-ca. 
2100  B.C.,  after  a  brief  interval,  followed  the  dynasty 
Gutium.    The  triumph  of  Ur  was  a  triumph  of  the 
Sumerians.    We  begin  in  this  period  to  meet  the  name 
Sumer  for  Southern  Babylonia.    North  Babylonia  was 
called  Akkad,  a  corruption  of  Agade.    With  the  triumph 
of  Ur  its  god  Nannar   became   prominent.    A   large 
number  of  new  deities  appear  in  the  inscriptions  of  this 
period.     Gula  (derived  from  Bau  by  the  use  of  an  epi- 
thet) is  one  of  these.    Most  of  them  are  not  important; 
Dungi,  the  second  monarch  of  the  dynasty  of  Ur,  was 
deified  and  extensively  worshiped  in  his  lifetime.    Bur- 
Sin  and  Gimil-Sin,  his  successors,  were  also  regarded  as 
gods. 

29.  The  first  dynasty  of  Babylon,  about  2100  B.C., 
made  the  city  of  Babylon  mistress  of  the  country.    This 
dynasty  had  arisen  out  of    a  new  wave  of   Amoritic 
immigrants  who  had  come  into  the  country.    The  chief 
god    of   Babylon   was   Marduk,    whose   worship   now 
became  prominent,  but  the  older  deities  were  all  honored 
too,  especially  the  triad  Arm,  Bel,  and  Ea.    Among  the 
bewildering  number  of  new  divine  names  that  came  into 
use  in  this  period  there  is  one  that  was  destined  to  play 
a  great  r61e  in  the  later  religion  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria.    This  was  Nabu,  god  of  Borsippa,  opposite 
Babylon,  who  later  became  the  god  of  eloquence  and  of 
writing.    Frequent  mention  is  made  of  the  spirits  of 
heaven  and  the  spirits  of  earth.    By  this  time  greater 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      25 

knowledge  of  the  stars  had  also  been  attained.  The 
goddess  Ishtar  had  been  identified  with  Dilbad,  the 
star  Venus,  and  apparently  some  rudimentary  knowl- 
edge of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  had  been  gained. 

30.  The  Kassite  dynasty,  about  1750  B.C.,  came  hi 
from  the  East  and  occupied  the  throne  of  Babylon  for 
576    years.    Barbarians    at    first,    the    Kassites    soon 
assimilated  Babylonian  culture.    They  added  little  to 
Babylonian  religion  except  a  few  barbarous  divine  names 
like  that  of  their  war-god,  Shukamuna.    Early  in  the 
Kassite  period  Sin,  Shamash,  and  Ishtar,  representing 
the  moon,  sun,  and  Venus,  were  grouped  together  as  a 
triad.    By  this   time  the  city  of  Lagash   had  been 
destroyed  and  its  god,  Ningirsu,  known  now  as  Ninib, 
was  detached  from  his  local  origin  and  worshiped  as  a 
sun-god. 

31.  Assyria  emerges  from  obscurity  about  2100-2000 
B.C.    The  dominant  strain  in  its  population  was  Semitic, 
derived  partly  from  Babylonia  and  partly  from  the 
West.    Recent  discovery  shows  that  Babylonian  immi- 
grants went  thither  as  early  as  3000-2800  B.C. 

The  national  god  of  Assyria  was  Ashur,  the  deity  of 
the  city  of  Ashur,  but  from  early  times  Ami  and  Adda 
were  also  worshiped  there  with  him.  Nineveh,  later 
the  capital,  was  founded  by  immigrants  from  Nina,  a 
part  of  Lagash.  They  brought  then-  goddess  Nina 
with  them,  later  calling  her  by  her  Semitic  name  Ishtar. 
Ishtar  was  also  the  chief  deity  of  Arbela,  another 
Assyrian  city.  The  Ishtar  of  Arbela  became  a  warrior 
goddess — the  goddess  of  the  bow.  Assyria  was  the 
most  warlike  and  ruthless  of  the  ancient  nations.  Her 
kings  boasted  of  impaling  men  and  flaying  them  alive. 


26  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Their  deities  Ashur  and  Ishtar  were  accordingly  cruel. 
The  Assyrian  kingdom  lasted  until  606  B.C.  Through- 
out its  history  many  Babylonian  deities  were  wor- 
shiped, since  Assyrians  always  looked  up  to  the  ancient 
divinities  of  their  mother-country. 

32.  The    neo-Babylonian    empire,    625-538    B.C., 
added  little  to  the  religion  of  the  country.    In  this 
period  we  find  the  triad  Sin,  Shamash,  and  Adad  (the 
moon-,  sun-,  and  the  weather-god),  as  well  as  the  triad 
Sin,  Shamash,  and  Ishtar.    The  worship  of  a  multitude 
of  deities  was  maintained,  but  Marduk,  Nabu,  Ishtar, 
Shamash,    and    Sin    were    the   most   popular.    After 
Babylon  lost  her  independence  the  worship  of  local 
deities  was  in  some  places  continued  down  to  the  Chris- 
tian era. 

33.  Monotheism  was  never  attained  or  even  ap- 
proached by  the  Babylonians.    In  the  early  tune  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  conception  of  unity  was  the  for- 
mation of  the  triads,  Anu,  Bel,   and  Ea;    and  Sin, 
Shamash,   and  Ishtar.    Perhaps  in  the  latest  period 
some  priests  went  farther,  for  a  neo-Babylonian  litany 

reads: 

Ninib  is  the  Marduk  of  might, 

Nergal  is  the  Marduk  of  fight, 

Zamama  is  the  Marduk  of  battle, 

Enlil  is  the  Marduk  of  dominion, 

Nabu  is  the  Marduk  of  superintendence  ( ?) 

Sin  is  the  Marduk  of  nocturnal  light, 

Shamash  is  the  Marduk  of  decisions, 

Adad  is  the  Marduk  of  rain  [etc.]. 

The  author  of  this  litany  saw  in  the  activities  of  these 
gods  Marduk  performing  different  functions,  but  there 
is  no  evidence  that  his  view  was  shared  by  any  con- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      27 

siderable  number  of  people.  Some  of  the  gods  kept 
many  functions  till  the  end.  Some  were  gradually 
assigned  more  and  more  to  special  functions.  Thus  Ea 
(Enki)  became  in  very  early  times  the  god  of  wisdom,  a 
r61e  that  he  maintained  till  the  end.  Shamash,  the  god 
of  light,  naturally  became  the  god  of  justice,  and 
Hammurapi  before  2000  B.C.  professes  to  have  received 
from  him  the  great  code  of  laws. 

34.  Creation-myths. — In  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
various  creation  myths  were  developed.  One  of  the 
oldest  assumes  the  existence  of  the  earth  and  narrates 
the  building  of  cities  and  the  development  of  agriculture. 
Another,  which  is  known  only  through  a  broken  tablet 
written  about  2100  B.C.,  attributes  the  creation  of  the 
world  to  the  triad  Ami,  Bel,  and  Ea,  together  with  the 
goddess  Ninkharsag,  while  Nintu  or  Ishtar  created 
mankind.  The  best  known  of  these  myths  was  in  late 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  times  developed  into  an  epic 
in  seven  tablets  or  cantos.  The  essence  of  this  story  is 
that  Tiamat,  the  great  mother-dragon  of  the  sea,  deter- 
mined to  destroy  the  gods  whom  she  had  borne.  They 
then  chose  one  of  their  number,  Marduk,  to  fight  her; 
he  overcame  her,  split  her  in  two,  and  formed  of  one 
part  of  her  the  heavens  and  of  the  other  the  earth. 
There  is  evidence  that  in  substance  this  myth  is  very 
old  and  that,  in  earlier  forms  of  it,  Enlil  of  Nippur  and 
Ea  of  Eridu  had  stood  hi  place  of  Marduk.  In  still 
another  creation-myth  the  god  Ashur  is  the  chief  actor. 
Such  a  myth  was  the  natural  product  of  lower  Babylonia, 
where,  on  account  of  the  annual  overflow  of  the  rivers, 
the  sea  seems  to  come  and  try  to  overwhelm  the 
land. 


28  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

35.  Gilgamesh  is  a  name  around  which  another  cycle 
of  myths  and  legends  clusters.    These  now  form  an  epic 
in  twelve  tablets  or  cantos.     Some  of  the  myths  come 
from  that  very  early  time  when  gods  and  men  were 
thought  to  mingle  freely  together,  others  embody  appar- 
ently bits  of  history,  while  still  others  reflect  compara- 
tively advanced   thoughts  on  death.     One  interesting 
passage  tells  of  the  creation  of  a  primitive  man  by  the 
goddess  Aruru  from  a  bit  of  clay  taken  from  the  ground. 
It  is  strikingly  like  the  creation  of  man  hi   Gen.  2:7. 
The  whole  epic  is  now  arranged  in  twelve  parts  according 
to  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  and  is  thought  by  some  to  be 
at  bottom  a  sun-myth.    The  eleventh  canto  contains  an 
account  of  the  flood  almost  identical  with  that  in  the 
Bible.1 

36.  Ishtar's  Descent  is  the  name  of  another  mythical 
poem,  which  describes  the  underworld.1    A  quotation 
from  it  stands  at  the  head  of  this  chapter.    The  myth, 
so  far  as  it  relates   to  the  goddess,  undoubtedly  had 
its  origin  in  the  annual  death  of  vegetation  in  the  burn- 
ing sun  of  a  Babylonian  summer.    The  picture  which 
it  affords   of   life   after  death  is  most  gloomy,  but  is 
not   unlike    that    found   in   Isa.    14:9-11    and   Ezek. 
32:22-32. 

37.  Other  myths  relate  to  various  matters.     Two 
are  concerned  with  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  man.    According  to  one  of  these,  preserved  to  us 
by  Berossos,  Oannes  (a  late  name  for  Ea)  was  a  fish-god 
who  lived  in  the  water  at  night,  but  came  up  by  day  and 

1  The  tablets  on  which  the  Gilgamesh  Epic  and  Ishtar's  Descent 
are  written  come  from  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  but  both  poems  are 
probably  much  older. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      29 

taught  men  agriculture,  horticulture,  the  art  of  building 
houses,  and  how  to  make  laws.  According  to  another, 
called  the  Adapa-myth,  Ea  feared  lest  man,  who  had 
become  intelligent,  should  partake  of  the  food  of  the 
gods  and  become  immortal.  At  a  time  when  Ea  knew 
that  other  gods  would  offer  Adapa  such  food  he  warned 
Adapa  not  to  partake  of  it,  lest  it  destroy  him.  Adapa 
obeyed  Ea  and  thus  missed  immortality.  These  myths 
reflect  the  feeling  that,  while  the  gods  are  willing  to  help 
man  up  to  a  certain  point,  they  are  jealous  of  his  too 
great  advancement. 

Another  myth  relates  how  Etana,  a  shepherd  king, 
after  various  adventures  with  a  serpent  and  an  eagle, 
essayed  at  last  to  mount  to  heaven  on  the  back  of  an 
eagle.  Still  another  myth  relates  how  the  zw-bird 
broke  the  wing  of  the  south  wind. 

38.  Temples,  built  generally  of  brick,  the  common 
Babylonian   building   material,    existed   in   Babylonia 
from  the  dawn  of  history.     From  the  walls  of  some  of 
them  which  have  been  discovered,  it  appears  that  they 
were  elaborate  structures  built  on  brick  terraces.    They 
contained,  besides  the  sanctuary  for  the  chief  deity, 
minor    sanctuaries    for    other    deities    and    extensive 
apartments  for  priests  and  temple  attendants.    To  each 
temple  was  attached  a  ziggurat,  or  staged  tower.    This 
represented  a  mountain  peak  as  Gudea's  brazen  sea 
represented  the  deep.    The  deities  were  represented  by 
idols,  and  on  festal  days  were  carried  in  procession  in 
"ships."    It  was  a  pious  deed  for  a  king  to  present  a 
god  with  one  of  these  "ships." 

39.  Priesthoods  had   developed  in  the  prehistoric 
period.    Later,  elaborate  liturgies  were  developed.    As 


30  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

time  advanced,  the  duties  of  the  priests  were  differ- 
entiated; some  gave  themselves  to  the  ordinary  duties 
of  a  priest,  while  others  were  set  apart  for  the  observance 
of  omens,  and  still  others  for  the  recitation  of  the  incan- 
tations which  were  supposed  to  drive  out  the  demons  of 
sickness.  In  connection  with  the  temples  there  also 
existed  men  and  women  who  represented  the  life-giving 
functions  of  the  deity.  It  was  their  duty  to  have 
commerce  with  those  who  resorted  to  the  temple  for 
the  cure  of  sterility.1 

The  Babylonian  priesthood  was  the  learned  class. 
Among  them  the  art  of  writing  was  kept  alive.  Schools 
of  instruction  existed  in  the  temples,  from  which  some 
of  the  students'  exercises  have  survived.  Here  men 
were  trained,  not  only  in  mathematics  and  bookkeeping, 
which  were  necessary  for  the  administration  of  the  large 
temple  estates,  but  in  the  religious  literature.  In  the 
temples  the  hymns  and  myths  were  copied  and  preserved. 

40.  Divination  as  a  means  of  ascertaining  the  future 
was  practiced  throughout  Babylonian  history.  The 
earliest  method  mentioned  was  by  pouring  oil  upon 
water.  Skilled  diviners  were  supposed  to  read  the 
future  in  the  shapes  assumed  by  the  oil.  King  Urkagina, 
before  2800  B.C.,  found  it  necessary  to  regulate  the 
charges  for  such  divination.  A  form  of  divination  that 
became  prominent  under  Sargon  of  Agade  was  the 
inspection  of  the  markings  on  the  liver  of  a  sheep.  In 
later  time  this  developed  into  an  extensive  pseudo- 
science.  From  Babylonia  it  extended  to  the  Etruscans 
and  the  West.  Augury  was  practiced  by  watching  the 

ISee  G.  A.  Barton,  "Hierodouloi  (Semitic  and  Egyptian)"  in 
Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  VT,  672-76. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      31 

flight  of  birds.  Omens  were  also  derived  from  unnatural 
and  deformed  births,  both  of  animals  and  of  human 
beings.  In  the  late  Assyrian  and  neo-Babylonian 
periods  omens  were  drawn  from  the  stars,  and  the 
pseudo-science  of  astrology  was  formed.  It  also  spread 
to  other  countries,  and  is  practiced  to  the  present  day 
even  in  our  own  land.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  whether 
some  of  these  practices  were  more  closely  related  to 
religion  or  to  magic. 

41.  Incantations  were  extensively  employed  through- 
out Babylonian  history  for  the  cure  of  sickness.    This 
is  the  more  remarkable  since  medical  knowledge  had  so 
far  advanced  before  2000  B.C.  that  the  Code  of  Ham- 
murapi  contained  laws  relating  to  medical  practice. 
To  the  end,  however,  disease  was  regarded  by  the  masses 
as  a  kind  of  demoniacal  possession,  and  it  was  thought 
that  by  reciting  incantations  the  demon  could  be  driven 
out.    A  number  of  these  incantations  have  survived. 

42.  Prayers  and  hymns  employed   in   the   temple 
service  and  in  private  devotions  have  also  been  pre- 
served.    Some   of   them   are   beautiful   in   form,    and 
touchingly  present  the  suppliant's  sense  of  need  and  his 
cry  for  help.     Some  of  the  appeals  remind  one  of  parts 
of  the  Hebrew  Psalter. 

43.  Sin  and  atonement. — The  Babylonian  sense  of 
sin  seems  to  have  been  simply  a  consciousness,  brought 
on  by  misfortune,  that  some  god  or  gods  were  angry 
and  estranged.     It  does  not  appear  to  have  had  a 
marked  ethical  content.    The  main  effort  was  to  appease 
the  divine  anger,  so  as  to  remove  the  affliction.    From 
the  earliest  times  sacrifices  were  thought  to  accomplish 
this,  but  sacrifice  was  reinforced  by  pathetic  personal 


32  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

appeal  and  by  intercession.  In  the  penitential  psalms 
one  god  or  a  group  of  gods  is  frequently  called  upon  to 
intercede  with  the  deity  who  is  angry.  About  2400 
B.C.  this  intercessory  idea  found  expression  in  a  proper 
name.  A  man  called  his  son  Ningirsu-zidda-$agisse- 
Nind-ta,  i.e.,  "Ningirsu  brings  the  blessing  from  Nina." 

44.  Ethics. — The  Babylonians  developed  at  an  early 
tune  a  highly  organized  social  and  commercial  life, 
which,  as  the  Code  of  Hammurapi  shows,  was  controlled 
on  well-formulated  principles  of  justice.    All  the  con- 
tingencies of  such  a  society,  even  those  of  commercial 
travelers,  are  provided  for  in  a  way  that  denotes  a  high 
degree  of  ethical  feeling.    The  gods,  although  in  the 
myths  they  sometimes  lie  to  men  and  deceive  them, 
were  believed  to  demand  ethical  conduct  of  their  wor- 
shipers, for  in  the  code  provision  is  frequently  made  for 
the  employment  of  oaths  as  guaranties  of  obligations. 
In  the  general  ethics  of  ordinary  life  the  Babylonians 
were  fully  abreast  of  other  nations.    The  Assyrians 
were  more  backward.    Perhaps  in  private  life  they  did 
not  fall  behind  the  Babylonians,  but  in  war  they  were 
the  most  cruel  of  all  the  great  nations  of  antiquity. 

45.  In   general,  the  spirit  of  the  Babylonian   and 
Assyrian  religion  is  well  summed  up  by  the  quotations 
at  the  head  of  this  chapter.    Their  pantheon  was  a 
highly  developed  polydemonism.    They  lived  in  con- 
stant fear  of  the  demons  of  floods,   pestilence,   and 
darkness.     Some  of  their  gods  were  good;    they  gave 
life  and  could  protect  it  if  they  would;  but  sickness  and 
misfortune,   which   were   all   too   frequent,   made   the 
worshiper  realize  poignantly  their  estrangement.    Hence 
the  frequent  and  pathetic  appeals  for  mercy.    Then  at 


THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA      33 

the  end  came  death,  inscrutable  mystery,  and  ruthlessly 
swept  man  into  a  most  cheerless  underworld! 

Acute  as  the  Babylonians  were  in  working  out  the 
initial  problems  of  agriculture,  social  organization, 
mathematics,  and  astronomy,  they  produced  in  the 
entire  course  of  their  history  no  great  prophetic  or 
philosophic  soul.  Their  religion  remained,  therefore, 
to  the  end  a  religion  of  grown-up  children. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  24:  either  L.  B.  Paton,  "Ishtar"  in  Hastings'  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  VII,  428-34;  or  G.  A. 
Barton,  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  chap.  iii. 

On  sees.  25-33:  R.  W.  Rogers,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  (New  York,  1908),  pp.  49-98;  or  M.  Jastrow,  Jr., 
Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (New  York,  1898), 
pp.  48-234,  or  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  (New  York,  1911),  pp.  143-206. 

On  sec.  34:  either  L.  W.  King,  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation 
(London,  1002),  pp.  1-155;  °r  R-  W.  Rogers,  Cuneiform 
Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament  (New  York,  1912),  pp.  1-60, 
or  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (New  York,  1908), 
chap,  iii;  or  R.  F.  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature 
(New  York,  1901),  pp.  282-303 ;  or  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology 
and  the  Bible  (Philadelphia,  1915),  Part  EC,  chaps,  i-viii. 
Chapter  viii  of  the  last-mentioned  work  contains  material 
not  found  in  the  other  books. 

On  sec.  35:  R.  F.  Harper,  op.  cit.,  324-68;  or  M.  Jastrow,  Jr., 
Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (New  York,  1898),  pp. 

467-517- 

On  sec.  36:  R.  W.  Rogers,  Cuneiform  Parallels  to  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, pp.  121-31;  or  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the 
Bible,  Part  n,  chap,  xriv,  §  4;  or  M.  Jastrow,  Jr.,  Religion 
of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  556-611. 


34  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

On  sec.  37:    R.  F.  Harper,  op.  cit.,  pp.  304-23. 

On  sees.  38,  39:  Jastrow,  Religion,  etc.,  pp.  612-89,  or  Aspects 
of  Religious  Belief,  etc.,  pp.  265-350. 

On  sec.  40:  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad  (London, 
1910),  pp.  183  ff.;  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief,  etc., 
pp.  143-255,  and  Babylonian-Assyrian  Birth-Omens  and  Their 
Cultural  Significance  (Giessen,  1914),  pp.  1-41. 

On  sec.  41:    Jastrow,  Religion,  etc.,  pp.  253-93. 

On  sees.  42,43:  R.  W.  Rogers,  Religion,  etc.,  pp.  142-84;  or 
Jastrow,  Religion,  etc.,  pp.  294-327. 

On  sec.  44:    Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief,  etc.,  pp.  351-418. 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I  (New  York,  1913),  chap.  x. 


CHAPTER  m 

THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT 
King  Unis  is  one  who  eats  men  and  lives  on  gods. 

It  is  "Punisher-of -all-evil-doers" 
Who  stabs  them  for  king  Unis; 
He  takes  out  for  him  their  entrails. 

Shemsu  cuts  them  up  for  king  Unis 
And  cooks  for  Him  a  portion  of  them. 

He  has  taken  the  hearts  of  the  gods; 

He  has  eaten  the  Red, 

He  has  swallowed  the  Green. 

King  Unis  is  nourished  on  satisfied  organs, 

He  is  satisfied,  living  on  their  hearts  and  their  charms. 

He  hath  swallowed  the  knowledge  of  every  god.1 

— From  a  pyramid  text  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty. 

If  thou  art  the  son  of  a  man  of  the  council  ....  be  not 
partial. 

If  thou  becomest  great  after  thou  wert  little,  and  gettest 
possessions  after  thou  wert  formerly  poor  in  the  city,  ....  be 
not  proud-hearted  because  of  thy  wealth.  It  has  come  to  thee  as 
the  gift  of  the  god. 

If  thou  searches!  the  character  of  a  friend,  ....  transact 
the  matter  with  him  when  he  is  alone. 

Let  thy  face  be  bright  as  long  as  thou  livest. 

— From  the  precepts  of  Ptahhotep.* 

1  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Eygft 
(New  York,  1912),  pp.  127  £. 
a  Breasted,  ibid.,  pp.  234  f, 

35 


36  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Thou,  O  Amon,  art  lord  of  the  silent, 

Who  cometh  at  the  cry  of  the  poor. 

When  I  cry  to  thee  in  my  affliction, 

Then  thou  comest  and  savest  me. 

That  thou  mayest  give  breath  to  him  who  is  bowed  down, 

And  mayest  save  me  lying  in  bondage. 

Thou,  Amon-Re,  lord  of  Thebes,  art  he, 

Who  saveth  him  that  is  hi  the  Nether  World, 


When  men  cry  unto  thee, 

Thou  art  he  that  cometh  from  afar. 

— From  a  hymn  of  the  Empire  period.1 

46.  Egypt  is  unique  among  the  countries  of  the  world 
for  its  form  and  its  isolation.     Created  by  the  river 
Nile  as  a  narrow  strip  of  green  out  of  the  barren  and 
almost  trackless  deserts  which  bound  it  on  either  side, 
Egypt  was  long  isolated.    Here  she  worked  out  alone 
the  problems  of  civilization  centuries  before  she  was 
drawn  by  the  impact  of  foreign  invasion  into  the  whirl- 
pool of  world-affairs. 

We  have  no  positive  knowledge  concerning  the  sav- 
ages who  may  have  occupied  the  Nile  Valley  before  it 
was  settled  by  the  ancestors  of  the  Egyptians.  We  only 
know  that  about  5000  B.C.  or  earlier  forty-two  tribes, 
most  of  whom  seem  to  have  belonged  to  the  Hamitic 
branch  of  the  Hamito-Semitic  race,  settled  there.2 

47.  The  prehistoric  period,  ca.  sooo-ca.  34oo3  B.C.— 
During  the  first  part  of  this  period  each  tribe  seems  to 

1  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt, 

P-  35i- 

a  See  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious, 
chap,  i;  "Tammuz  and  Osiris,"  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society, 
XXXV,  213-23. 

» For  a  discussion  of  Egyptian  chronology,  see  Breasted,  Ancient  Rec- 
ords, Egypt,  I,  25  ff.;  or  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bibk,  chap,  i,  §  5. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  37 

have  been  independent.  Each  had  its  separate  god, 
and,  like  many  other  early  tribes,  they  appear  to  have 
been  henotheists.  At  this  period  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  different  totem  for  each  tribe,  although  the 
relation  of  animals  to  their  religious  and  social  organiza- 
tion does  not  conform  altogether  to  the  laws  of  totemism 
as  formulated  from  the  study  of  its  features  in  other 
parts  of  the  world.1  Nevertheless  in  each  Egyptian 
nome2  or  tribe  an  animal  or  a  bird  was  so  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  god  that  it  was  thought  to  be  sacred  to 
the  deity,  and  the  god  was  often  represented  in  the 
form  of  the  totem.  Thus  Amen  of  Thebes  was  repre- 
sented by  the  ram,  Ptah  of  Memphis  by  the  bull,  Atum 
of  Heliopolis  by  the  lion,  Bastet  of  Bubastis  by  the  cat, 
Har-khent-kheti  of  Athribis  by  the  serpent,  Harshef  of 
Akhnas  by  a  ram,  Hathor  of  Denderah  by  the  cow, 
Khnum  of  Elephantine  by  the  goat,  Khons  of  Thebes 
by  the  sparrow  hawk,  Min  of  Koptos  by  an  ithy- 
phallic  man,  Mut  of  Thebes  by  the  vulture,  Nekhbet  of 
El-Kab  by  the  vulture,  Opet,  a  goddess  of  childbirth  in 
Thebes,  by  a  pregnant  hippopotamus,  Osiris  of  Busiris 
and  Abydos  by  a  peculiar  post  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  conventionalized  palm  tree,  Horus  of  Edfu  by 
the  sparrow  hawk,  Set  of  Ombos  by  the  ass,  Shu  of 
Leontopolis  by  the  lion,  Sobk  of  the  Fayum  by  the 
crocodile,  Thoth  of  Hermopolis  by  the  ibis  and  baboon, 
Wto  of  Buto  by  the  serpent,  and  Wep-wat  of  Siut  by 
the  wolf.  Such  information  as  we  have  comes  from 

1  Cf.  C.  H.  Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions,  §§  515-21. 

'"Nome"  is  the  word  applied  by  Greek  writers  to  the  different 
divisions  or  "  counties  "  of  ancient  Egypt,  each  one  of  which  was  originally 
occupied  by  a  different  tribe. 


38  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

later  times,  and  while  we  cannot  trace  the  animal  which 
was  sacred  in  every  nome,  we  can  trace  so  many  that 
the  inference  is  justified  that  every  tribe  had  its  sacred 
animal  or  plant.  In  some  nomes  more  than  one  animal 
was  sacred.  This  may  indicate  that  in  the  lapse  of 
centuries  war  and  invasion  created  in  such  cases  a 
mixture  of  different  tribes.  This  association  of  animals 
with  Egyptian  gods  was  so  long  continued,  and  their 
civilization  crystallized  sacred  customs  at  a  tune  so 
early,  that  the  animal  representations  of  the  deities 
continued  down  to  Roman  times. 

The  physical  environment  of  the  Hamitic  tribes  in 
North  Africa  was  so  similar  to  that  of  the  Semitic  tribes 
in  Asia  that  the  power  to  produce  life  appeared  to  these 
tribes,  as  to  the  Semites,  to  be  an  especially  divine 
quality.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  larger 
number  of  Egyptian  gods  were  at  the  beginning  gods  of 
fertility.  The  most  popular  of  these  deities  of  fertility 
in  later  times  was  Osiris  and  his  sister-wife,  Isis.  Isis 
was  a  mother-goddess  and  is  pictured  nursing  a  child- 
god  in  the  reed  lands.1  Though  the  myths  of  Osiris 
make  her  prominent,  she  seems  herself  to  have  become 
popular  in  actual  worship  only  in  late  times. 

On  some  of  the  pottery  found  in  pre-dynastic  tombs 
it  appears  that  standards  were  attached  to  different 
boats,  some  of  which  were  in  animal  form.  Whether 
these  were  private  emblems  or  were  the  banners  of 

1  See  Erman,  Aegyptische  Religion,  ate  Aufl.  (Berlin,  1909),  p.  40. 
The  writer  has  stated  above  his  own  view  of  the  god  Osiris,  but 
opinions  differ.  According  to  some  scholars  he  is  Tammuz  or  Marduk, 
borrowed  from  Babylonia  or  from  the  Semites,  and  given  another  name. 
According  to  Frazer,  Adonis,  Attis,  Osiris  (London,  1914),  he  is  a 
corn-god. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  39 

different  tribes,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.1  Little 
by  little  through  many  wars  these  tribes  were  united 
into  two  kingdoms.  The  territory  from  near  the  first 
cataract  to  the  apex  of  the  Delta  formed  the  kingdom 
of  Upper  Egypt,  the  region  of  the  Delta  formed  that 
of  Lower  Egypt.  These  two  kingdoms  existed  side 
by  side  for  several  centuries,  or  at  all  events  for  a 
time  so  long  that  to  the  end  of  Egyptian  history  Egypt 
was  called  the  two  kingdoms  or  the  two  Egypts. 
Like  Austria-Hungary  it  was  a  dual  monarchy.  The 
names  of  a  few  kings  who  reigned  before  the  union 
of  these  two  kingdoms  have  survived  on  the  Palermo 
stone.2 

As  in  Babylonia,  the  victory  of  one  city  over  another 
led  to  some  measure  of  worship  being  given  by  the 
conquered  to  the  god  of  the  conquerors.  The  deity  of 
the  nome  whose  chieftain  ruled  the  kingdom  was  wor- 
shiped in  all  the  nomes  composing  the  realm  along  with 
the  local  gods.  Thus  the  worship  of  some  gods  tended 
to  become  universal  in  the  country,  and  a  syncretism 
began  which  hi  the  end  created  pantheons.  At  some 
time,  while  the  two  kingdoms  were  separate,  Set,  the 
god  of  Ombos,  was  regarded  as  the  god  of  Upper  Egypt, 
and  Horus  of  Behdet  the  god  of  Lower  Egypt.  A  war 
occurred  between  the  two  realms  in  which  Lower  Egypt 
was  victorious.  Horus  was  said  to  have  triumphed 
over  Set.  In  later  generations  the  political  circum- 
stances were  forgotten,  though  the  myth  of  the  strife 
remained,  and  the  priests  of  later  centuries,  assigning  to 

1  See  E.  A.  W.  Budge,  History  of  Egypt  (Oxford  University  Press, 
1902),  I,  78. 

'  See  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  I,  57. 


40  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Horus  the  functions  of  light  and  to  Set  those  of  darkness, 
read  deeper  meanings  into  the  myth  of  this  conflict.1 

48.  The  archaic  period,  ca.  34oo-ca.  3000  B.C. — 
About  3400  B.C.  the  kingdoms  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt  were  united  into  one  monarchy  by  Mena,  or 
Menes,  and  that  period  began  which  Manetho  covered 
hi  his  chronicle.  This  writer  divided  the  time  from 
Mena  to  Alexander  the  Great  into  thirty-one  dynasties. 
The  archaic  period  covers  the  time  of  the  first  two 
dynasties,  both  of  which  came  from  the  nome  of  This 
in  Upper  Egypt,  the  chief  city  of  which  was  Abydos. 
The  original  god  of  This  was  Enhor,  but  in  some 
way  that  is  now  obscure  the  worship  of  Osiris,  the 
god  of  Busiris  in  the  Delta,  had  become  popular  at 
Abydos.  Perhaps  a  colony  from  Busiris  had  settled 
in  Abydos.  The  long  supremacy  of  the  nome  of  This 
under  the  first  two  dynasties  gave  to  the  worship  of 
Osiris  as  the  most  popular  god  of  This  a  vogue  in  all 
parts  of  Egypt  which  the  theories  of  later  ages  tended 
to  heighten.  Mena  chose  the  city  of  Memphis,  near 
the  borders  of  the  two  kingdoms  that  he  had  united,  as 
an  administrative  center.  This  fact  tended  to  bring 
into  prominence  Ptah,  the  god  of  Memphis.  During 
this  period  a  great  advance  in  the  conception  of  the 
divine  appears  to  have  been  made.  Images  of  the  gods 
began  to  be  represented  in  human  form.  This  was  a 
distinct  advance  over  the  animal  forms  of  the  earlier 
time.  The  older  ideas  were  still  expressed,  however, 
by  giving  to  the  statue  of  the  god  the  head  of  the  animal 
that  represented  that  particular  deity.  .Thus  originated 

1  Cf.  G.  Steindorf,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (New  York, 
1905),  P.  3°. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  41 

divine  images,  the  bodies  of  which  were  in  human  form, 
while  the  heads  were  those  of  animals  or  birds. 

During  this  period  and  the  preceding  the  king, 
through  the  evolution  of  an  absolute  government, 
came  to  stand  entirely  apart  from  the  people.  In  an 
animistic  stage  of  society  any  man  who  rises  above  his 
fellows  by  the  exercise  of  superior  ability  is  supposed  to 
be  possessed  of  a  more  divine  spirit  than  the  common 
crowd.  It  thus  came  about  very  naturally  that  the 
kings  were  now  regarded  as  gods. 

49.  The  Old  Kingdom,  ca.  sooo-ca.  2475  B.C. — 
This  includes  Dynasties  III,  IV,  V,  and  VI.  It  is  the 
period  in  which  the  long  processes  through  which 
Egypt's  civilization  had  been  developing  reached  their 
first  culmination.  It  was  the  age  of  pyramid-builders. 
In  it  the  great  pyramids  came  into  existence.  Dynasties 
III  and  IV  were  attached  to  Memphis,  and  Memphis 
was  the  capital  of  the  country  throughout  the  period. 
The  political  supremacy  of  his  city  tended  to  increase 
the  importance  of  the  worship  of  the  god  Ptah  in  all 
parts  of  Egypt.  The  Fifth  Dynasty  came  from  the 
family  of  the  priesthood  of  On  (Gen.  41:45),  called 
Heliopolis  by  the  Greeks.  At  On,  Atum  had  by  this 
time  been  identified  with  the  sun  and  was  often  called 
Re,  the  Egyptian  word  for  the  sun.  The  ascendency 
of  this  priestly  family  in  the  Fifth  Dynasty  gave  Re  a 
degree  of  universal  homage  in  all  parts  of  Egypt  that  he 
never  afterward  lost. 

In  this  period  the  sky  was  sometimes  represented 
as  a  gigantic  cow,  whose  legs  stood  upon  either  horizon, 
and  whose  belly  was  studded  with  stars.  Sometimes 
the  sky  was  pictured  as  a  woman,  whose  feet  stood  upon 


42  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

one  horizon,  and  who  stooped  so  that  her  fingers  touched 
the  other.1  It  was  thus  that  the  mother-goddesses  of 
the  earlier  tune  began  to  be  transferred  to  the  sky. 

The  long-continued  existence  of  Egypt  under  one 
ruler  produced  in  this  period  in  the  minds  of  the  more 
thoughtful  a  sense  of  the  unity  of  the  world.  It  began 
to  seem  anomalous  that  there  should  be  so  many  deities. 
This  difficulty  was  met  in  part  by  the  assignment  of 
different  functions  to  different  deities — Geb  became  a 
sky-god;  Nut,  the  earth-goddess;  Shu,  the  god  of  the 
air,  etc.  To  some  degree  the  end  was  also  sought  by 
grouping  the  gods  in  families  of  father,  mother,  and  son. 
At  On  the  priesthood  had,  before  the  end  of  the  Old 
Kingdom,  taken  another  step  and  formed  a  group  of 
nine  affiliated  gods,  called  by  the  Greeks  an  ennead. 
The  scheme  of  this  ennead  was  as  follows: 

Atum-Re 


Shu 1 Tefnut 


Geb 1 Nut 

r~r  ~      i     i 

Osiris-Isis  Set-Nephthys 

This  ennead  was  imitated  all  over  Egypt,  but  ancient 
conceptions  were  too  deeply  ingrained  and  the  gods 
were  too  numerous  to  permit  the  movement  toward  a 
unitary  conception  to  make  much  progress. 

In  the  tomb  of  Unis,  the  last  king  of  the  Fifth 
Dynasty,  and  in  the  tombs  of  the  kings  of  the  Sixth 

1  See  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  2d  ed.,  p.  55. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  43 

Dynasty,  religious  texts  were  inscribed.  These  texts 
are  the  oldest  literary  remains  which  we  have  from 
Egypt.  They  consist  of  sentences  which  depict  in 
various  forms  the  fortunes  of  the  king  after  death. 
These  fortunes  are  described  in  the  terms  of  fortunes 
of  the  god  Osiris.1  It  is  assumed  that  the  king  will 
become  an  Osiris.  Osiris  was  a  vegetation  god  (origi- 
nally a  palm-tree  god?)  like  the  Semitic  Tammuz. 
Like  Tammuz  he  had  a  mother,  Isis.  As  Ishtar  later 
became  the  wife  of  Tammuz,  so  Isis  became  the  wife  of 
Osiris.  As  a  god  of  vegetation  Osiris,  like  Tammuz, 
died,  and  Isis,  like  Ishtar,  mourned  for  him.  The  myth, 
as  time  passed,  took  on  many  features,  but  the  feature 
of  importance  here  is  that  Osiris  rose  from  the  dead, 
and  before  the  pyramid  texts  were  written  it  was 
supposed  that  he  was  translated  after  the  resurrec- 
tion to  a  place  in  the  sky  along  with  the  sun 
and  other  heavenly  bodies.  Ordinarily  the  dead 
were  supposed  to  pass  a  miserable  existence  in  an 
underworld,  but  the  king,  as  a  god,  was  to  escape  from 
this  and,  like  Osiris,  to  be  translated  to  a  heavenly 
paradise. 

The  paradise  portrayed  in  these  texts  was  of  a 
peculiarly  material  sort.  Although  at  times  the  king 
is  represented  as  soaring  through  the  heavens  like  the 
god  Re,  his  paradise  has  a  tree  of  life  growing  in  its 
midst,  from  which  at  times  the  king  feeds.  This  tree 
of  life  is  probably  a  survival  from  the  date  palm  of  the 
primitive  North  African  and  Arabian  desert,  which 
furnished  to  both  Semites  and  Hamites  their  conception 

1  See  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  Lecture  V. 


44  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  the  tree  of  life.1  But  the  king  is  not  always  confined 
to  this.  Upon  his  arrival  in  paradise  he  was  thought 
to  be  an  infant  in  the  heavenly  realm,  so  the  sky-goddess 
extended  to  him  her  breasts  to  suckle  him.2  Later  he 
was  provided  with  a  feast  which  consisted  of  viands 
such  as  men  were  fond  of  on  earth — a  thousand  of 
bread,  a  thousand  of  beer,  a  thousand  of  oxen,  a  thousand 
of  geese,  a  thousand  of  everything  whereon  the  god 
lives.3  He  was  also  provided  with  a  mistress,  and  is 
described  as  the  man  who  takes  women  from  their 
husbands  whither  he  wills,  and  when  his  heart4  desires. 
He  is  even  represented  as  pursuing  those  cannibal 
practices  which  the  savage  Egyptians  of  an  earlier 
time  had  employed,  by  which  they  hoped  to  absorb  the 
brave  qualities  of  their  enemies.  He  is  said  to  eat 
other  gods,  so  as  to  swallow  the  knowledge  and  power 
of  every  god.5 

50.  The  Middle  Kingdom. — Strictly  speaking,  the 
Middle  Kingdom  comprises  the  Eleventh  and  Twelfth 
dynasties,  2160-1792  B.C.,  but  in  classifying  the  stages 
of  religious  development  it  may  be  said  to  begin  with 
the  fall  of  the  Sixth  Dynasty  in  2475  B.C.  From  the 
accession  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty  onward  the  tendency  of 
social  evolution  was  away  from  the  absolutism  that  had 
culminated  in  the  power  of  the  pyramid-builders.  The 
organization  of  the  Sixth  Dynasty  was  thoroughly 
feudal,  and  upon  its  fall  Egypt  appears  for  a  time  to 

1  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  pp.  88-96. 

a  Breasted,  op  cit.,  p.  130. 

J  Ibid.,  p.  132. 

*Ibid.,  p.  177. 

s  See  quotation  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  45 

have  fallen  into  its  original  parts.  The  later  organization 
of  society  under  Dynasties  IX,  X,  XI,  and  XII  was 
thoroughly  feudal,  and  this  change  left  its  mark  upon 
the  religious  conceptions  of  the  time. 

With  the  accession  of  the  Eleventh  Dynasty  the 
nome  of  Thebes  became  the  dominant  nome  in  Egypt,  a 
position  which  it  held  for  more  than  a  thousand  years. 
This  gave  to  Amon,  the  god  of  that  nome,  a  position  of 
reverence  in  all  parts  of  Egypt  similar  to  that  attained 
at  an  earlier  time  by  Osiris,  Ptah,  and  Re,  though  none 
of  the  others  ever  attained  the  popularity  of  Osiris. 

The  most  striking  religious  development  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom  was  the  emergence  into  prominence 
of  the  common  man.  A  series  of  writings  from  this 
period  shows  the  development  of  a  sensitive  social  con- 
science and  of  an  advanced  system  of  ethics.  The  social 
conscience  appears  in  such  compositions  as  the  popu- 
lar story  of  the  "Eloquent  Peasant,"1  in  which  the 
grievances  and  rights  of  a  poor  man  are  so  effectively 
set  forth  that  a  noble  and  a  king  do  justice  to  him,  and 
in  the  admonitions  of  a  sage,  Ipuwer,  who  mourns  the 
unjust  social  conditions  of  his  age,  and,  in  the  opinion 
of  some,  refers  to  an  ideal  king,  a  kind  of  Messiah,  who 
was  to  come.3  Of  a  similar  social  nature  is  a  work 

1  Students  who  read  German  should  consult  F.  Vogelsang  and 
Alan  H.  Gardiner,  Die  Klagen  des  Bauern  (Leipzig,  1908),  which  contains 
the  best  translation  of  it  into  a  modern  language.  Those  who  do  not 
should  consult  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
EnPt,  PP-  217  ff.;  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II, 
chap,  xxiv;  or  Petrie,  Egyptian  Tales,  First  Series,  pp.  61  ff. 

'  See  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  pp.  203  ff.,  especially  p.  212,  note.  The  whole  work  is  trans- 
lated in  Alan  H.  Gardiner's  Admonitions  of  an  Egyptian  Sage  (Leipzig, 
1909). 


46  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

embodying  instructions  to  a  vizier.1  The  ethical  ideals 
of  the  time  are  set  forth  in  the  Wisdom  of  Ptahhotep, 
who  gave  instruction  that  in  many  respects  reminds  one 
of  the  Book  of  Proverbs.2 

The  age  was  one  of  reflection.  The  glad  childhood 
of  Egypt  had  passed.  Skepticism  and  misanthropy  had 
begun  to  prevail  in  some  circles  as  "The  Dialogue  of  a 
Misanthrope  with  His  Own  Soul"  proves.3  Another 
testimony  to  the  Importance  now  attached  to  the 
common  people  is  shown  in  the  changed  conceptions  of 
the  life  after  death.  In  the  old  kingdom  it  was  only 
the  kings  who  ascended  to  heaven  like  Osiris;  now  it 
was  thought  to  be  the  destiny  of  the  common  man  as 
well.4 

51.  The  Early  Empire  period,  1580-1375  B.C. — In 
the  period  between  the  Middle  Kingdom  and  the 
Empire,  Egypt  was  subject  for  a  hundred  years  to  con- 
querors from  Asia,  commonly  known  as  the  Hyksos. 
The  effort  to  expel  these,  and  so  to  conquer  Asia  as  to 
keep  them  out  of  Egypt,  led  to  the  building  up  of  the 
Empire.  In  this  struggle  the  local  nobility,  who  had 
for  several  hundred  years  restrained  the  power  of  the 
king,  were  killed  off,  and  the  king  emerged  with 
power  as  absolute  as  of  old.  Nevertheless  the  literary 
products  of  the  earlier  period,  in  which  the  social  con- 
science of  that  time  found  expression,  were  read  and 

1  See  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  pp.  240-43. 

*  Breasted,  ibid.,  pp.  227-37;  a^d  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the 
Bible,  Part  II,  chap.  xxii. 

» Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt, 
pp.  188-98. 

« Breasted,  ibid.,  Lecture  VIII. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  47 

treasured.  The  victories  of  the  kings  in  Asia  tended  to 
increase  the  glory  of  Amon,  god  of  Thebes.  Beginning 
with  Thothmes  III  large  quantities  of  booty  were  con- 
tributed to  his  temple.  This  increased  the  weatlh  and 
importance  of  his  priesthood.  Indeed  Thothmes  III 
had  been  a  member  of  the  priesthood  of  Amon  before 
he  came  to  the  throne  and  had  secured  the  throne 
through  a  coup  planned  and  executed  by  that  priest- 
hood. He  accordingly  paid  his  political  debts  by 
making  the  high  priest  of  Amon  primate  of  Egypt — a 
step  which  resulted  in  long  making  Thebes  the  religious 
capital  of  the  country.  The  new  imperial  power  was 
accompanied  by  a  new  tendency  toward  a  unitary  con- 
ception of  the  universe.  In  the  reign  of  Amenophis  HI 
two  brothers,  architects,  inscribed  in  a  tomb  a  hymn  to 
Amon  as  the  sun-god,  that  speaks  of  him  as  the  only 
lord  of  the  world.  He  is  called: 

Sole  lord  taking  captive  all  lands  every  day, 


When  he  enfolds  them 

Every  land  is  in  rejoicing 

At  his  rising  every  day,  in  order  to  praise  him.1 

52.  The  reform  of  Ikhnaton,  1375-1350  B.C. — This 
monotheistic  tendency  culminated  in  the  reign  of 
Amenophis  IV,  who  preferred  to  be  called  Ikhnaton,  or 
"Spirit  of  Aton."  This  king  was  a  religious  enthusiast 
rather  than  a  politician.  He  looked  about  for  some 
deity  that  alone  could  be  worshiped.  The  time  had  not 
come  in  the  development  of  the  human  mind  when  men 
could  get  away  from  material  things  and  think  of  a 

1  See  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  pp.  315  ff.,  for  the  entire  hymn. 


48  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

really  spiritual  deity.  Ikhnaton  accordingly  selected 
the  sun  disk  as  his  one  god.  Amon,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  was  identified  with  the  sun,  but  the  name  of 
Amon  was  really  bound  up  with  the  old  polytheism. 
Re  of  On  was  also  a  sun-deity  who  had  long  been  wor- 
shiped throughout  Egypt,  but  Ikhnaton  felt  the  same 
objection  to  him.  He  selected  a  different  name,  Aton, 
for  his  god,  and  employed  all  his  imperial  power  to 
compel  men  to  worship  him.  The  priesthoods  of  the 
old  cults  were,  however,  strong,  and  the  priests  of 
Amon  at  Thebes  so  thwarted  the  king's  power  that  he 
soon  left  Thebes  and  founded  a  new  city  as  his  capital. 
This  city  was  about  midway  between  Thebes  and 
Memphis  on  the  site  of  the  modern  Tell-el-Amarna. 
The  new  city  was  called  Akhetaton,  or  "Horizon  of 
Aton."  Here  a  temple  to  Aton  was  constructed  and  the 
whole  city  given  over  to  his  worship,  and  here  the  king 
composed  hymns  to  Aton,  the  one  god,  some  of  the 
strains  of  which  remind  one  of  the  Hebrew  Psalter.1 
Ikhnaton  used  his  regal  power  to  extend  the  worship  of 
Aton  and  the  new  monotheism.  Temples  of  this  deity 
were  planted  in  distant  Nubia  and  elsewhere.  So 
absorbed  was  Ikhnaton  in  this  work  that  he  permitted 
the  dominions  of  Egypt  in  Asia  to  fall  into  a  state  of 
anarchy  and  ultimately  to  become  separated  from 
Egypt.  Egypt  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  reform  as 
Ikhnaton's,  and  one  of  the  early  successors  of  Ikhnaton 
was  compelled  to  abandon  it,  return  the  royal  resi- 
dence to  Thebes,  and  restore  the  god  Amon  to  his 
old  place. 

1  See  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 

Egypt,  pp.  324  ff. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  49 

53.  The   Later  Empire  period,  1350-1167  B.C. — A 

reform  that  fails  leaves  matters  in  worse  condition  than 
before,  and  after  Ikhnaton  the  religion  of  Egypt  as  a 
whole  settled  down  to  a  repetition  of  ancient  ceremonies 
and  the  acceptance  of  old  ideas.  In  the  inscriptions 
from  the  tombs  of  Thebes,  where  the  common  people 
now  received  such  burial  as  had  formerly  been  accorded 
to  kings,  and  where  they  died  in  hope  of  a  resurrection 
like  that  of  Osiris,  we  can  trace  for  a  century  or  two  a 
development  of  marked  personal  piety.1  Under  Seti  I 
and  Ramses  II  the  Asiatic  empire  was  renewed,  and 
before  the  end  of  this  period  contact  with  Asia  led  to  the 
introduction  here  and  there  of  Asiatic  deities,  such  as 
Baal,  Resheph,  Anath,  and  Ashtart.  These  foreign 
cults,  however,  made  no  deep  impression  upon  the 
religion  of  Egypt  as  a  whole. 

54.  Period  of  decadence  and  foreign  control,  1167- 
31  B.C. — The  centuries  that  followed  the  Empire  were 
centuries  of  decadence.     Various  changes  occurred,  but 
they  could  hardly  be  called  advances.     In  this  period 
great  attention  was  given  to  old  and  obscure  forms. 
Care  was  taken  to  preserve  the  bodies  of  the  sacred 
animals.    We  hear  of  tombs  for  the  Apis  bulls  at  Mem- 
phis as  early  as  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  but  in  the  Per- 
sian and  Hellenic  periods  extensive  cemeteries  of  other 
sacred    animals    were    supported.    The    Serapeum    at 
Memphis  contained  the  mummies  of  more  than  sixty 
bulls,  the  last  one  found  having  been  buried  after  100 
B.C.     Similar  cemeteries  for  bulls  existed  at  On  and 
Hermonthis,  for  rams  at  Mendes,  for  cats  at  Bubastis 
and  Beni  Hasan,  for  crocodiles  at  Lake  Moeris,  for 

'  See  Breasted,  ibid.,  Lecture  X. 


SO  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

falcons  at  Buto,  and  for  ibises  at  Eshmunen.  Such 
numbers  of  mummified  cats  have  been  found  at  Beni 
Hasan  that  modern  enterprise  has  employed  them  as 
fertilizer! 

At  the  beginning  of  this  period  we  learn  from  the 
Papyrus  Harris  that  about  one  person  in  every  fifty  in 
Egypt  was  a  slave  to  some  temple.  In  other  words,  the 
temples  owned  about  2  per  cent  of  the  population.  They 
also  owned  about  14^  per  cent  of  the  cultivatable  land 
of  the  country,  and  enormous  flocks  and  herds  and 
treasure  in  proportion.1  By  far  the  larger  share  of 
these  vast  possessions  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priest- 
hood of  Amon.  The  immense  power  thus  acquired  by 
this  priesthood  led  before  the  end  of  the  Twentieth 
Dynasty  to  an  assumption  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
the  high  priest  of  Amon  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  king, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  Twenty-first  Dynasty  the 
high  priest  Hrihor  seized  the  crown. 

During  the  reigns  that  followed  the  king  usually 
resided  at  Tanis  in  the  Delta,  and  the  high  priest  was  a 
son  or  brother  of  the  monarch  and  viceroy  of  the  southern 
third  of  Egypt.  Under  the  Nubian  kings  of  the  Twenty- 
fifth  Dynasty  the  sisters  and  daughters  of  the  monarchs 
filled  this  office.  Apparently  these  kings  thought  that 
the  best  means  of  controlling  the  powerful  priesthood  of 
Thebes  was  to  have  a  woman  at  its  head! 

From  663  to  525  B.C.,  after  three  centuries  of  control 
by  foreign  dynasties,  Egypt  once  more  enjoyed  the  rule 
of  native  kings.  This  period  was  accompanied  by  a 
great  revival  of  national  feeling,  but  in  religion  it  was 
not  a  creative  period.  The  ceremonies  and  texts  of 

1  See  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  491. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  51 

the  Old  Kingdom  were  revived,  assiduously  studied, 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  galvanize  them  into  life, 
but  it  was  not  a  religious  revival  in  the  deeper  sense  of 
the  word.  Under  the  Hellenic  kings  after  306  B.C.  the 
god  Osiris  as  Osiris-Apis  or  Serapis  triumphed  over  the 
solar  gods  Re  and  Amon  and  became  the  most  popular 
deity  of  Egypt.  This  position  he  retained  until  over- 
whelmed by  Christianity.  Isis  also  received  in  this 
period  a  greater  degree  of  adoration  than  ever,  and  in 
Roman  times  became  the  center  of  a  cult  practiced  by 
many  non-Egyptians. 

55.  Priesthood    and   cult. — The   priesthood   of   the 
Egyptian  temples  was,  as  in  other  countries,  gradually 
evolved  from  the  chieftains  and  medicine  men  of  the 
earlier  tune.    The  stages  of  the  evolution  are  involved 
in  obscurity.    As  finally  organized  the  priesthoods  con- 
sisted of  various  classes  of  priests,  prophets,  etc.,  to 
whom  different  duties  were  assigned.    These  derived 
their  whole  living  from  the  temple  and  its  revenues. 
They  were  subject  to  many  minute  rules  of  ceremonial 
purity,  which  prescribed  how  they  should  bathe,  shave, 
dress,  and  what  they  should  eat.    To  some  were  assigned 
the  duties  of  awakening  the  god,  making  his  toilet,  and 
feeding  him.     Greek  writers  tell  of  festivals  at  which 
priests  acted  out  the  myths  of  the  gods.    At  some 
of  the  temples   (probably  at  all)  schools  existed  for 
the   instruction   of   candidates   for   the   priesthood   hi 
the  mysteries  of  their  work  and  the  culture  of  their 
time. 

56.  Sacrifice. — In   the  earliest  times  the  sacrifices 
consisted  mainly  of  gazelles,  antelopes,  and  wild  goats,  the 
flesh  of  which  was  most  often  employed  by  men  as  food. 


52  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  meat  was  offered  partly  raw  and  partly  cooked.1 
When  cooked,  it  was  brought  forward  on  metal  braziers. 
Probably  the  use  of  fire  is  of  later  development  than  the 
uncooked  offering.  Herodotus  bears  witness  to  the 
continuance  of  the  burnt  offerings  down  to  the  fifth 
century  B.C.  According  to  him  the  head  of  the  victim 
was  cut  off  and  imprecations  were  pronounced  over  it, 
after  which  it  was  thrown  into  the  river  or  sold  to 
Greeks.  The  ritual  in  other  respects  varied  in  different 
places,  but  the  sacrifice  to  one  of  the  principal  goddesses 
consisted,  he  says,  of  bullocks.  These  were  flayed,  the 
intestines  removed,  though  the  vitals  and  fat  were  left 
in  the  body.  The  priests  then  cut  off  the  legs,  the 
extremity  of  the  hips,  the  shoulders,  and  neck,  after 
which  they  filled  the  trunk  with  fine  bread,  honey, 
raisins,  figs,  incense,  myrrh,  and  other  perfumes. 
Having  poured  oil  over  the  whole,  they  burned  it.8 

Apart  from  such  offerings  the  priests  prepared  for 
the  gods  at  meal- time  food  consisting  of  bread,  meat, 
cakes,  and  pastry.3  At  their  festivals  great  quantities 
of  food  and  wine  were  also  consumed.4 

57.  Magic. — As  in  other  ancient  countries  magic 
developed  in  Egypt  at  an  early  date.  It  appears  to 
have  been  fairly  well  advanced  by  the  time  of  the  Old 
Kingdom.  As  in  Babylonia  it  attached  itself  to  the 
cure  of  disease.  In  later  time  it  connected  itself  with 
the  burial  of  the  dead,  and  magic  formulae,  often 
sentences  from  the  book  of  the  dead,  were  written  on 

1  See  Erman,  Aegyptische  Religion,  2te  Aufl.  (Berlin,  1909), 
pp.  58  ff. 

1  Herodotus  ii.  39. 
Erman,  op.  cit.,  pp.  60  ff.  « Herodotus  ii.  60. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  53 

the  inside  of  the  coffins  in  order  to  ward  off  from  the 
departed  evil  spirits  which  would  block  their  way. 
When  these  became  too  numerous  for  the  inside  of  the 
coffin,  they  were  inscribed  on  rolls  of  papyrus.  Such 
superstitions  hindered  the  best  development  of  religion, 
and  Ikhnaton  prohibited  them  during  his  reign.  After 
him  they  were  again  revived.1 

58.  The  ka  and  the  soul. — According  to  Egyptian 
belief  each  person  possessed  a  ka  given  to  him  by  a  god 
at  his  birth.    As  long  as  he  was  master  of  this  ka  he 
lived.    The  ka  was  invisible,  but  it  was  assumed  to  have 
an  appearance  exactly  like  the  body  in  which  it  dwelt. 
At  death  the  ka  left  the  body,  but  it  was  hoped  that  it 
would  occasionally  visit  and  reanimate  the  form  in 
which  it  had  dwelt  so  long.     It  was  for  the  ka  that  food 
was  so  carefully  placed  in  the  tomb,  and  that  such  care 
was  taken  to  preserve  the  body.2    Besides  the  ka  each 
person  was  thought  to  have  a  bai  or  soul,  which  could 
be  seen,  and  which  also  left  the  body  at  death.    This 
was  often  conceived  to  exist  in  the  form  of  a  bird,  and  it 
was  thought  that,  while  the  mourners  were  lamenting 
the  departed,  he  might  be  sitting  among  the  birds  of  a 
neighboring  tree  watching  them.    This  conception  con- 
tinued into  Christian  times,  for  in  Christian  cemeteries 
in  Nubia  the  souls  of  the  departed  in  the  form  of  stone 
birds  are  found  perched  on  the  gravestones. 

59.  Life  after  death. — Interest  hi  the  life  after  death 
was  developed  among  the  Egyptians  to  a  higher  degree 

1  See  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  pp.  101  ff.,  175,  249  ff.,  369  ff.,  390, 
459,  and  498. 

"Professor  Breasted  thinks  the  ka  simply  awaited  a  man  in  the 
hereafter.  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  52. 


54  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

than  among  any  other  ancient  people.  Probably  it  is 
in  part  due  to  the  development  of  their  civilization  at  a 
time  so  early  that  the  mind  of  man  could  not  dis- 
entangle its  thoughts  from  the  physical  that  the  preser- 
vation of  the  body  was  considered  essential  to  the  life 
after  death.  Every  effort  was  accordingly  made  to 
preserve  the  body,  and  the  art  of  mummification  was 
evolved.  As  to  the  lif e  after  death  itself,  it  is  probable 
that  at  the  beginning  different  conceptions  prevailed  in 
different  parts  of  Egypt.  At  the  beginning,  however, 
all  Egyptians  thought  of  the  dead  as  having  an  earthly 
abode.  As  time  passed  this  abode  was,  in  the  thought 
of  many,  through  the  influence  of  the  Osiris-myths, 
transferred  to  the  sky.  Side  by  side  with  this  last 
conception  some  of  the  older  ones  survived.  The  life  of 
the  departed  was,  according  to  the  most  widely  accepted 
view,  but  a  continuance  of  the  life  on  earth.  The  child 
remained  a  child  and  the  old  man  remained  an  old  man. 
The  same  social  organization  existed,  and  the  same  joys 
and  physical  needs  of  food.  In  the  earliest  time  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  dead  was  supposed  to  be  the  sands 
of  the  desert,  generally  to  the  west  of  the  cities,  where 
the  cemeteries  were  situated.1  According  to  another 
conception,  which  apparently  originated  in  some  par- 
ticular part  of  Egypt,  the  dead  lived  in  a  lower  world, 
which,  like  Egypt,  was  a  narrow  land  bounded  by 
deserts  through  which  a  river  flowed.  This  land  was 
dark  by  day,  but  was  visited  by  the  sun  at  night.2 
The  conception  that  the  dead  were  taken  up  to 

1  See  Steindorf,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (New  York,  1905), 
pp. 116-19. 

3  Steindorf,  ibid.,  pp.  126  ff. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  55 

heaven  became  the  popular  one  in  later  times.  The 
earliest  literary  witnesses  to  it  are  the  pyramid  texts, 
where  its  blessings  are  confined  to  kings.  As  in  later 
time  it  became  more  democratic,  other  expressions  of 
faith  in  it  were  committed  to  writing,  sometimes  on 
coffins,  sometimes  on  papyri.  In  the  Empire  period 
and  the  revival  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty  efforts 
were  made  to  collect  these,  but  no  collection  embraces 
them  all.  This  body  of  literature  is  known  as  the  Book 
of  the  Dead.1  While  it  is  mainly  devoted  to  the  Osirian 
conception  of  the  hereafter,  older  views  also  often  find 
expression.  It  is  a  confused  and  repetitious  mass  of 
material,  but  is  a  powerful  witness  to  the  ancient 
Egyptian  yearning  for  immortality. 

60.  Myths. — The  Egyptians  appear  to  have  had  a 
considerable  number  of  myths  about  their  gods.  There 
are  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  and  other  religious  texts 
many  allusions  to  such  myths.  Comparatively  few  of 
these  have  survived.  The  most  popular  of  those 
which  we  know  was  the  myth  of  the  death  and  resur- 
rection of  Osiris,  which  played  such  an  important  part 
in  the  development  of  the  conception  of  the  hereafter, 
and  of  which  some  description  has  already  been  given.2 
Another  popular  myth  told  how  the  goddess  Isis  learned 
the  secret  name  of  Re.  This  myth  seems  to  have 
circulated  among  magicians.  Still  another  told  how, 
when  Re  had  grown  old  and  feeble,  his  authority  was 
despised.  Men  conspired  against  him  as  they  might 
against  an  old  Pharaoh  who  had  outlived  his  vigor.  Re 

1  See  E.  A.  W.  Budge,  The  Book  of  the  Dead,  II  (London,  1898). 
This  volume  contains  a  translation  of  the  various  texts.  Vol.  I  is 
occupied  with  the  Egyptian  text,  and  Vol.  Ill  with  an  Egyptian  glossary. 

a  See  above,  sec.  50. 


56  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  anger  sent  the  fierce  lion-headed  goddess  Sekhmet  to 
devour  them,  and  she  executed  her  task  so  well  that 
mankind  was  in  danger  of  complete  destruction.  The 
problem  then  became  how  to  induce  the  goddess,  who 
had  once  tasted  blood,  to  desist.  This  Re  accomplished 
by  making  seven  thousand  jars  of  beer  look  like  blood, 
so  that  the  goddess  drank  herself  drunk  on  these,  and 
the  remnant  of  the  human  race  escaped.  Egypt  had  no 
story  of  the  flood.  The  overflow  of  the  Nile  was  there 
not  an  evil,  but  the  greatest  blessing. 

61.  Ethics. — The  thought  of  the  Egyptian  people, 
though  in  some  domains  always  of  a  peculiarly  elemen- 
tary character,  achieved  its  greatest  triumphs  in  the 
realm  of  ethics.  Civilization  developed  at  too  early  a 
date  to  permit  the  acceptance  of  an  advanced  system  of 
religious  thought.  To  the  end  animal-worship,  together 
with  a  confused  mass  of  gods  and  myths  about  the 
hereafter,  perpetuated  certain  primitive  conceptions. 
The  realm  of  religious  theory  was  in  Egypt  always 
occupied  by  a  chaos  of  contradictory  views.  The 
Egyptians,  like  the  Babylonians  and  Chinese,  were  an 
exceedingly  practical  people.  They  worked  out  for 
the  human  race,  as  did  the  Babylonians,  many  of  the 
initial  problems  of  civilization.  In  ethical  thought, 
too,  they  did  yeoman  service.  The  precepts  of  Ptah- 
hotep  and  the  admonitions  of  Ipuwer  take  high  rank. 
Ptahhotep's  precepts  are,  like  the  biblical  Book  of 
Proverbs,  eminently  practical,  but  they  also  betray 
deep  insight  into  human  nature  and  the  exigencies  of 
practical  life.  The  expressions  of  a  social  conscience 
which  come  from  the  Middle  Kingdom  are  also  evidence 
of  advanced  ethical  thought.  No  doubt  practice  lagged 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  57 

behind  theory,  but  it  is  to  Egypt's  credit  that  her  sages 
were  able  to  formulate  such  lofty  theories  of  conduct. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  Egyptian  history:  cf.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  chap, 
i;  or  better,  Breasted,  A  History  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians 
(New  York,  1908) ;  or  better  still,  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt, 
ad  ed.  (New  York,  1909). 

On  sees.  47,  48:  cf.  Barton,  "Tammuz  and  Osiris,"  Journal  of 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  XXXV,  213-23;  and  Breasted, 
History  of  Egypt,  2d  ed.,  chap,  iii,  or  Development  of  Religion 
and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt,  Lecture  I. 

On  sec.  49:  cf.  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought 
in  Ancient  Egypt.  (New  York,  1912),  Lectures  II-V. 

On  sec.  50:    cf.  Breasted,  op.  cit.,  Lecture  VHI. 

On  sees.  51-54:    cf.  Breasted,  ibid.,  Lectures  IX  and  X. 

On  sec.  55:  cf.  Herodotus,  Book  ii.  37;  and  Breasted,  History 
of  Egypt,  2d  ed.,  pp.  62-63,  m,  241,  247,  249  ff.,  272,  362, 
401-3,  475,  489-97,  5o6  ff.,  520-28,  574-96. 

On  sec.  56:  cf.  Herodotus,  Book  ii.  39-41;  and  Erman,  Hand- 
book of  Egyptian  Religion,  1907,  chap.  vi. 

On  sec.  58:  cf.  Steindorf,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  pp. 
106-13. 

On  sec.  59:  cf.  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought 
in  Ancient  Egypt,  Lectures  H-VIII;  and  E.  A.  W.  Budge, 
The  Book  of  the  Dead,  II ,  passim;  also  Steindorf,  Religion  of 
the  Ancient  Egyptians,  pp.  114-37. 

On  sec.  59:  cf.  D.  A.  Mackenzie,  The  Myths  of  Egypt  (London, 
1914),  passim;  and  Petrie,  Religion  and  Conscience  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  Lecture  IV. 

On  sec.  60:  cf.  Breasted,  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought 
in  Ancient  Egypt,  Lectures  VI  and  VII;  and  Petrie,  Religion 
and  Conscience  in  Ancient  Egypt,  Lecture  VI. 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions  (New  York,  1913),  chaps,  viii 
and  be. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS 

Yahweh  is  a  man  of  war: 
Yahweh  is  his  name. 

— Exod.  15:3. 

I  Yahweh  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God. 

— Exod.  20:5. 

Hear,  O  Israel,  Yahweh  our  God  is  one  Yahweh. 

— Deut.  5:4. 

When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him, 
And  called  my  son  out  of  Egypt. 

— Hos.  ii :  i. 

But  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions, 
He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities. 
The  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him; 
And  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed. 

— Isa.  53:5- 

62.  The  land. — Palestine  consists  of  a  strip  of  fer- 
tility, varying  in  width  from  70  to  125  miles,  between 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Arabian  Desert.  The 
fertility  is  caused  by  the  rain  from  moisture-laden  clouds 
which  are  driven  in  from  the  Mediterranean  during 
the  winter  months,  and  extends  eastward  until  the 
moisture  of  the  clouds  is  exhausted.  This  strip  of  land 
formed  in  ancient  times  a  bridge  of  fertility  between  the 
Nile  and  the  Mesopotamian  valleys.  The  whole  country 
is  about  the  size  of  the  states  of  Rhode  Island  and  Con- 

58 


59 

necticut.  On  the  west  is  the  maritime  plain,  bordered 
on  its  southeastern  part  by  the  Shephelah  or  low  hills; 
east  of  this  is  the  central  range  of  Palestinian  hills,  cleft 
in  parts  by  many  deep  valleys,  the  chief  of  which  is  the 
great  valley  of  Esdraelon  or  Jezreel;  east  of  this  again 
is  the  Jordan  Valley,  in  many  respects  the  most  remark- 
able valley  in  the  world.  From  the  Huleh  southward 
it  is  altogether  below  the  level  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  at  the  Dead  Sea  reaches  a  depression  of  about  1,300 
feet.  East  of  this  is  a  great  tableland  which  rises,  in 
parts,  to  a  height  of  3,500  feet  above  sea-level.  At  its 
northern  extremity  Mount  Hermon  rises  9,166  feet, 
and  from  November  to  July  or  August  is  capped  with 
snow.  In  no  other  part  of  the  earth's  surface  is  such 
a  variety  of  flora  and  fauna  found  within  such  narrow 
limits.  The  land  and  its  climate  no  doubt  played  some 
part  in  the  birth  of  that  religion  which  has  so  influenced 
the  world  for  good.1 

63.  Value  of  the  patriarchal  narratives. — The  his- 
torical study  of  the  early  books  of  the  Bible  has  shown 
that  they  were  written  much  later  than  was  formerly 
supposed,  and  that  the  traditions  of  the  Hebrew  patri- 
archs collected  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  consist  largely  of 
traditions  of  later  tribal  history,  which  are  in  some  cases 
attached  to  the  names  of  tribes  represented  as  persons, 
and  in  some  cases  to  immigrants  from  Babylonia  whose 
names  had  been  attached  to  localities  in  which  the 
Hebrew  tribes  settled.2 

1  For  a  fuller  statement,  see  George  Adam  Smith,  Historical  Geog- 
raphy of  ike  Holy  Land,  pp.  43-61. 

*For  a  more  extensive  discussion  of  these  narratives,  see  G.  A. 
Barton,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  LII, 
185-200,  or  The  Religion  of  Israel  (in  press),  chap.  ii. 


60  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

64.  The   formation   of   the   Hebrew  nation. — The 

traditions  indicate  that  the  Hebrew  nation  is  composed 
of  four  groups  of  tribes,  which  are  said  to  be  descended 
from  four  mothers.  Of  these  groups  the  most  important 
are  the  Leah  tribes  and  the  Rachel  tribes.  Leah  means 
"wild  cow"  and  Rachel,  "ewe."  Opinions  differ  as 
to  whether  these  were  totems  or  economic  symbols  or 
both.  The  Rachel  tribes  may  have  been  sheep-raisers 
and  the  Leah  tribes  cattle-raisers.  There  is  consider- 
able evidence,  both  archaeological  and  biblical,  to  show 
that  the  Leah  tribes  entered  Palestine  and  secured  a 
footing  there  about  1375-1350  B.C.,  and  that  the  Rachel 
tribes  did  not  enter  the  country  until  1200  B.C.  or 
later.  The  evidence  indicates  that  the  Leah  tribes 
entered  the  land  from  the  south,  the  Rachel  tribes 
from  the  east.  The  probability  is  that  the  Rachel 
tribes  only  were  in  Egypt,  that  it  was  they  who  were 
led  out  by  Moses,  and  that  it  was  with  them  that  the 
covenant  was  made  at  the  burning  mountain  called 
Horeb.1 

65.  The  early  religion. — Analogy  makes  it  probable 
that  the  religion  of  these  tribes  before  they  entered 
Palestine  did  not  differ  materially  from  that  of  other 
nomadic    tribes    about    them.     Since    the    primitive 
Semitic  pillars  and  asheras  (or  wooden  posts),  circum- 
cision, the  herem  or  ban,  and  law  of  blood-revenge  were 
perpetuated  by  them  into  much  later  times,  it  is  probable 
that  in  other  respects  their  religion  was  similar  to  that 
of  other  nomadic  Semites.    Each  tribe  may  have  had  its 

1  For  full  discussion  of  the  evidence,  see  L.  B.  Paton,  Biblical  World, 
XLVI,  82-88, 173-80;  also  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXII,  1-54; 
and  G.  A.  Barton,  Religion  of  Israel,  chap.  iii. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     61 

deity;  at  least  we  hear  of  a  god  Gad1  (Isa.  65:11)  which 
was  probably  originally  the  god  of  the  tribe  Gad,  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  tribe  of  Asher  wor- 
shiped the  goddess  Ashera.  In  the  tribe  of  Judah  some 
Kenites  settled.  The  Kenite  god  was  Yahweh  (Jehovah) , 
and  the  J  document  written  in  Judah  reflects  the  belief 
that  the  worship  of  Yahweh  went  back  to  the  earliest 
times  (Gen.  4:26).  We  cannot  now  determine  the  date 
of  this  fusion.  It  is  possible  that  it  began  before  the 
settlement  of  the  Leah  tribes  in  Palestine. 

66.  Yahweh  before  Moses. — A  theory  that  has  in 
recent  years  won  the  assent  of  the  majority  of  the  writers 
on  the  religion  of  Israel  is  that  Yahweh  was  the  god  of 
the  Midianite-Kenites  before  he  became  the  God  of 
Israel.  This  tribe  was  nomadic  and  wandered  from  the 
borders  of  Egypt  as  far  eastward  as  the  volcanic  lands 
to  the  north  of  Medina,  in  Arabia.  Their  god,  like 
most  Semitic  gods,  was  a  god  of  fertility.  The  epithet 
Yahweh,  by  which  he  was  called,  probably  meant  "he 
who  causes  passionate  love."  They  attributed  all 
activity  to  him.  Volcanic  eruptions  were  his  appear- 
ance on  the  burning  mountain,  the  showers  of  the 
peninsula  of  Sinai  were  given  by  him,  their  victories 
over  their  enemies  were  won  by  him.  There  are  indi- 
cations that  Yahweh  may  have  been  a  divine  name  in 
North  Arabia  for  a  thousand  years  before  Moses,  and 
that  emigrants  from  this  region  to  Babylonia  and 
Palestine  had  carried  the  name  to  those  countries.2 

1  Rendered  "Fortune"  in  the  Revised  Version. 

1  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  point,  see  G.  A.  Barton,  "Yahweh 
before  Moses,"  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religion  Presented  to  Crawford 
Howell  Toy  by  Pupils,  Colleagues,  and  Friends  (New  York,  1912), 
pp. 187-204. 


62  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Possibly  some  of  the  Leah  tribes  other  than  Judah  had 
learned  before  they  came  to  Palestine  to  apply  this 
epithet  to  their  god,  but  of  this  we  have  no  definite 
information. 

67.  The  work  of  Moses. — Moses,  fleeing  from  Egypt, 
married  the  daughter  of  Jethro,  Yahweh's  priest  among 
the  Midianite-Kenites.  At  the  burning  bush  on  Yah- 
weh's volcanic  mountain  he  was  so  impressed  with  the 
power  and  majesty  of  Yahweh  that  it  marked  an  epoch 
in  his  life.  He  returned  to  Egypt  to  preach  to  his 
enslaved  kinsmen  the  hope  of  escape  through  the  power 
of  Yahweh.  The  escape  was  effected,  and  at  the  burn- 
ing mountain  the  Rachel  tribes  entered  into  covenant 
with  Yahweh  to  make  him  their  God  and  to  serve 
him  (see  Exod.,  chaps.  1-24).  At  the  first  sacrifice 
offered  after  the  Hebrews  reached  Yahweh's  moun- 
tain Jethro  officiated  (Exod.  18:1-12);  but  later 
the  covenant  was  consummated  at  a  sacrificial  feast  at 
which  Moses  and  Aaron  officiated  (Exod.  24:1-11). 
The  E  document  holds  that  the  name  "Yahweh" 
first  became  known  to  Israel  at  this  time  (Exod. 
3:1-14),  and  this  is  probably  true  for  the  Rachel 
tribes. 

A  box  or  ark,  which  could  be  easily  carried  from 
place  to  place,  and  which,  perhaps,  contained  a  sacred 
stone,  became  the  symbol  of  Yahweh's  presence  with 
them.  The  sum  of  his  requirements  of  his  new  wor- 
shipers, as  nearly  as  we  can  now  ascertain  them,  con- 
sisted of  ten  commands  which  could  be  easily  numbered 
off  on  the  fingers  and  remembered.  They  are  now 
embedded  in  Exod.,  chap.  34,  where  later  agricultural 
regulations  have  in  two  or  three  instances  overlaid  their 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     63 

originally  nomadic  character.  They  appear  to  have 
been  the  following: 

1.  Thou  shalt  worship  no  other  god. 

2.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  molten  gods. 

3.  The  feast  of  the  Passover  thou  shalt  keep. 

4.  The  firstling  of  an  ass  thou  shalt  redeem  with  a  lamb;  all 
the  first-born  of  thy  sons  thou  shalt  redeem. 

5.  None  shall  appear  before  me  empty. 

6.  Six  days  thou  shalt  work,  but  on  the  seventh  thou  shalt 
rest. 

7.  Thou  shalt  observe  the  feast  of  ingathering  [of  dates]. 

8.  Thou  shalt  not  offer  the  blood  of  my  sacrifice  with  leavened 
bread,  neither  shall  the  sacrifice  of  the  Passover  remain  until  the 
morning. 

9.  The  firstlings  of  thy  flocks  thou  shalt  bring  unto  Yahweh, 
thy  God. 

10.  Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother's  milk. 

There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  these  commands 
were  not  written  down,  but  were  committed  to  tradition. 
This  fact  made  it  easier  for  later  prophets  to  reinterpret 
the  covenant  and  to  make  its  basis  ethical.  In  the 
fact  of  the  covenant,  the  possibility  of  such  ethical 
reinterpretation,  and  the  belief  in  Yahweh's  intolerance 
of  other  gods  lay  the  germs  of  future  progress. 

68.  Yahweh  an  agricultural  God. — The  entrance  of 
the  Rachel  tribes  into  Palestine  led  to  their  union  with  the 
other  tribes  of  Israel.  Yahweh  was  already  known  to 
some  of  these,  and  by  silent  processes  of  assimilation 
which  are  now  obscure  to  us  he  was  accepted  more  or 
less  definitely  by  all  the  tribes  as  their  God.  The 
political  and  religious  life  of  the  early  time  was  in  no 
sense  organized.  Until  the  time  of  Saul  and  David 
there  was  no  national  consciousness.  In  the  early  days 


64  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

there  was  no  organized  priesthood  (cf.  Judg.,  chaps. 
17,  18).  In  the  union  of  the  tribes  the  vivid  memories 
which  the  Rachel  tribes  entertained  of  their  experiences 
triumphed  over  all  other  traditions  of  Yahweh.  Spread 
by  the  omnipresent  oriental  story-teller,  they  were  so 
much  more  vivid  than  the  tamer  experiences  of  the 
other  tribes  that  in  time  they  became  the  common 
inheritance  of  all. 

When  Palestine  was  conquered  the  shrines  of  the 
agricultural  gods  were  taken  over  and  became  shrines 
of  Yahweh.  This  happened  at  Schechem,  Bethel, 
Hebron,  Gezer,  and  at  many  other  places.  Stories  of 
how  it  occurred  at  Dan  and  Jerusalem  have  survived  in 
the  Bible  (Judg.,  chaps.  17,  18;  II  Sam.,  chap.  24). 
The  stories  which  at  these  shrines  were  told  of  the  old 
gods  were  now  told  of  Yahweh.  Yahweh  was  now 
believed  to  send  the  rain  and  to  give  the  crops.  The 
old  gods  had  been  called  baals,  i.e.,  owners  of  the  soil, 
and  in  time  the  name  was  applied  to  Yahweh  also  (see 
Hos.  2:16).  To  Yahweh's  feasts  new  agricultural 
feasts  were  added,  and  agricultural  elements  were  intro- 
duced into  the  old  ones.  The  sensual  orgies  of  Semitic 
religion  became  more  reprehensible  when  practiced  by 
a  wealthy  population.  These  orgies  as  they  had  been 
practiced  by  the  Canaanites  were  taken  over  into 
Yahweh's  religion. 

During  all  this  time  the  orthodox  type  of  sanctuary 
for  Yahweh  was  a  high  place  open  to  the  sky.  We  hear 
of  one  small  temple  at  Shiloh  (I  Sam.,  chaps.  1-5),  with 
doors  and  apparently  a  roof — a  temple  in  the  holiest 
place  of  which  Samuel  slept!  The  open-air  high  place 
was  nevertheless  the  normal  type  of  sanctuary.  Solo- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     65 

men's  temple  was  an  innovation.  It  was  constructed 
on  the  general  plan  of  the  temples  of  Israel's  more 
civilized  neighbors.  It  contained  an  altar  of  bronze, 
whereas  an  altar  of  earth  or  unhewn  stone  was  regarded 
long  after  this  as  the  only  proper  altar  (Exod.  20: 24-26). 
Centuries  later  the  temple  of  Solomon  was  revered  as 
the  ideal  dwelling-place  of  Yahweh,  but  for  a  consider- 
able time  it  was  thought  to  be  of  a  heretical  type. 

69.  Elijah  and  after. — In  the  reign  of  Ahab  there 
began  a  religious  and  social  ferment  which  led  to  the 
transformation  of  Israel's  religion.  Ahab's  Tyrian 
wife,  Jezebel,  had  brought  with  her  the  worship  of  the 
Tyrian  god  Melkart.  She  and  her  husband  in  the 
case  of  Naboth  (I  Kings,  chap.  21)  outraged  Hebrew 
popular  rights.  At  this  juncture  Elijah  came  from 
Gilead,  proclaiming  the  old  nomadic  ideal  of  Yahweh 
and  linking  his  religious  ideals  to  the  rights  of  the 
people  as  against  the  king.  To  Elijah  and  his  followers, 
not  only  was  the  worship  of  the  Tyrian  Melkart  wrong, 
but  the  worship  of  the  agriculturized  Yahweh  of  the 
west  Jordan  lands  was  little  better.  It  was,  he  thought, 
also  the  worship  of  Baal.  In  the  person  and  work  of 
the  prophet  Elisha  the  ideals  of  Elijah,  though  some- 
what obscured,  were  to  some  degree  cherished.  In  the 
circles  of  Elijah's  disciples  stress  was  laid  on  ethics 
rather  than  upon  ritual  as  the  essence  of  Yahweh's 
covenant  with  his  people. 

It  is  not  surprising,  accordingly,  that  in  the  E  docu- 
ment, written  in  the  Northern  Kingdom,  where  the 
ministry  of  these  prophets  was  spent,  ethical  require- 
ments were  substituted  for  the  ritualistic  requirements 
in  the  ten  <( words"  or  commands,  which  were  supposed 


66  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

to  sum  up  what  Yahweh  required  of  his  people  when  he 
made  his  covenant  with  them.  This  substitution  was 
the  easier  because  at  the  beginning  the  commands  had 
not  been  written,  but  committed  to  oral  tradition. 
Such  substitution  involved  no  conscious  fraud.  It  was 
but  an  expression  of  the  feeling  we  all  have  that,  if 
properly  transmitted,  the  fundamental  religious  docu- 
ment of  our  faith  must  teach  the  highest  religion  and 
ethics  of  which  we  know.  The  ethical  decalogue  which 
resulted  was  as  follows: 

1.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me. 

2.  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image. 

3.  Thou  shalt  not  lift  up  the  name  of  Yahweh  to  a  vanity 
[i.e.,  thou  shalt  not  swear  to  a  liel. 

4.  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

5.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother. 

6.  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 

7.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

8.  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

9.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor. 
10.  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house. 

This  decalogue  sums  up  the  religious  advance  which 
Elijah  and  his  followers  had  achieved,  though  some  of 
the  commands  clearly  go  back  to  the  early  days.  It  is 
tempting  to  think  that  the  commands  against  coveting, 
swearing  to  a  lie,  and  bearing  false  witness  were  sug- 
gested by  the  experience  of  Naboth.  It  should  be 
noted  that  Israel  was  not  yet  in  theory  monotheistic. 
The  first  of  these  commands  presupposes  the  reality  of 
the  existence  of  other  gods. 

70.  The  eighth-century  prophets. — The  insight  of 
four  great  men,  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  and  Micah,  who 
lived  and  preached  between  755  and  690  B.C.,  carried 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     67 

the  work  begun  by  Elijah  to  much  higher  levels.  While 
they  presented  no  philosophical  theory  of  monotheism, 
each  one  of  them  was  a  practical  monotheist.  They 
assumed  that  Yahweh  controlled  all  nations.  Amos 
was  the  first  to  proclaim  this  (Amos  9:7),  and  it  became 
an  axiom  with  the  others.  Their  monotheism  was  one- 
sided in  its  conception  of  Yahweh's  attitude  toward 
the  world.  They  thought  him  chiefly  interested  in 
Israel,  and  as  dealing  with  the  other  nations  as  such 
dealing  was  necessary  for  the  discipline  of  Israel.  They 
all  represented  Yahweh  as  a  God  whose  one  desire  was 
his  passion  for  social  justice.  His  chief  demand  was 
righteousness  between  man  and  man.  In  their  earlier 
ministry  they  maintained  that  this  was  the  sum-total 
of  his  religion.  They  declared  that  he  demanded  no 
sacrifices;  that  he  was  disgusted  with  ritual  (Amos  5: 
21,  25;  Isa.  1:12-14);  that  the  essence  of  his  religion 
was  that  "justice  roll  down  as  waters  and  righteousness 
as  an  ever-flowing  stream"  (Amos  5:24).  Amos  held 
out  as  a  motive  for  righteousness  only  the  fear  of  pun- 
ishment. Hosea,  the  first  prophet  of  the  love  of  Yahweh, 
urged  as  a  motive  his  great  love.  Hosea  interpreted  the 
covenant  at  Horeb  as  a  marriage  contract.  Yahweh 
had  chosen  Israel  as  his  bride,  and  her  faithlessness 
was  base  ingratitude  to  him  and  deeply  grieved  his 
heart. 

71.  Beginning  of  the  messianic  hope. — Isaiah  was, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  the  first  prophet  of  the 
messianic  hope.  There  has  been  a  tendency  in  the  last 
thirty  years  to  believe  that  all  messianic  prophecy  was 
written  after  the  exile.  Against  this  view  the  writer 
has  elsewhere  protested.  There  is  no  adequate  reason 


68  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

for  denying  to  Isaiah  the  authorship  of  the  two  oracles 
in  Isa.  9:2-6  and  uri-o,.1  The  first  of  these  visions 
dates  from  the  Syro-Ephraimitish  war  of  735  B.C.,  and 
represents  the  ideals  of  a  young  man  whose  blood  is  hot. 
He  looked  for  a  king  to  come  who  should  surpass  in  all 
kingly  qualities  Tiglath-pileser  IV  of  Assyria.  He 
was  to  be 

a  wonder-counselor, 
a  god  of  a  warrior, 
a  father  of  booty, 
a  prince  of  peace. 

The  vision  recorded  in  Isa.  11:1-9  is  a  vision  of  his  old 
age,  dating  from  the  time  of  Sennacherib's  second  inva- 
sion of  Judah  in  691  or  after.2  In  this  vision  the  figure 
of  the  king  fell  into  the  background,  and  in  imagery  of 
unsurpassed  beauty  the  prophet  set  forth  the  unsullied 
righteousness  that  should  then  prevail.  Here  is  crys- 
tallized the  essence  of  the  ethical  teaching  of  the 
prophets  of  the  eighth  century. 

72.  Isaiah's  compromise  with  ritual. — Apparently 
in  his  old  age  Isaiah  saw  that  the  world  was  not  ready 
for  a  religion  without  ritual  and  persuaded  King  Heze- 
kiah  to  try  to  reduce  ritual  to  such  limits  that  it  could 
be  purified  of  those  agricultural  and  primitive  elements 
which  the  prophets  now  identified  with  the  worship  of  the 
Canaanitish  Baals.  Hezekiah  accordingly  attempted  to 
suppress  all  the  outdoor  shrines  of  the  land  and  to  center 

xFor  a  more  extended  discussion,  see  G.  A.  Barton,  Journal  of 
Biblical  Literature,  XXXIII,  68-74;  Religion  of  Israel  (in  press), 
chap,  vi 

3  See  the  argument  of  Fullerton  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  LXII1,  577- 
634;  and  Rogers,  Cuneiform  Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  332-40. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     69 

the  worship  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  (II  Kings  18: 
1-6  and  22).  This  movement  naturally  met  with 
much  opposition. 

73.  Jerusalem    the    dwelling    of    Yah  wen. — When 
Sennacherib  came  against  Jerusalem  the  second  time 
and  all  looked  hopeless,  Isaiah,  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  of  Hezekiah's  reform,  conceived  Jerusalem 
to  be  necessary  to  the  worship  of  Yahweh,  and  declared 
that  Yahweh  would  protect  it  (Isa.  31:5).    The  army 
of  Sennacherib  was  decimated  by  bubonic  plague,  which 
the  people  of  Jerusalem  believed  to  be  inflicted  by  the 
angel   of   Yahweh    (II   Kings    19:36),*    the   Assyrian 
withdrew  and  Jerusalem  was  spared.    This  providential 
vindication  of  the  prophet's  word  gave  to  Jerusalem 
a  new  significance  in  the  minds  of  many  Hebrews,  and 
was  the  beginning  of  the  belief  that  Yahweh  dwelt  on 
Zion  rather  than  at  Horeb. 

74.  The    writing    of    Deuteronomy. — Under    King 
Manasseh,  686-641  B.C.,  there  was  a  violent  reaction 
against  the  prophetic  reforms.    The  country  shrines 
were  restored,  and  the  people,  led  by  their  king,  revived 
heathen    Semitic   customs   that   had   been   discarded. 
During  this  period,  while  the  disciples  of  the  great 
eighth-century  prophets  could  do  nothing  openly,  they 
cherished  their  ideals  in  secret  and  made  plans  for  the 
future.    In  these  circles  about  650  B.C.  the  Deuter- 
onomic  law  was  composed.    Its  basis  was  the  "Book  of 
the  Covenant,"  Exod.  20:24 — 23:19,  the  legal  kernel 
of  the  E  document,  but  the  law  of  the  altar,  Exod. 
20:24-26,  was  changed  so  as  to  limit  the  sanctuary  to 

1  See  G.  A.  Smith,  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  pp.  158  ff., 
or  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.    One-volume  ed.,  p.  403. 


70  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  "place  which  Yahweh  should  choose,"  and  other  fea- 
tures of  the  code,  which  presupposed  a  multiplicity  of 
sanctuaries,  were  modified  to  conform  to  this.  The 
striking  deliverance  from  Sennacherib  was  held  to  show 
that  Yahweh  had  chosen  Jerusalem,  and  there  was  never 
a  question  that  Jerusalem  was  the  one  place  of  worship. 
Some  of  the  social  features  of  the  older  code  were  soft- 
ened, so  that  the  law  as  it  appears  in  Deuteronomy 
embodies  something  of  the  social  emphasis  of  the  preach- 
ing of  the  eighth-century  prophets. 

75.  Josiah's  reform. — Josiah,  the  grandson  of  Manas- 
seh,  was  friendly  to  the  prophetic  ideals,  and  by  the 
eighteenth  year  of  his  reign  the  advocates  of  those  ideals 
found  a  favorable  opportunity  to  secure  public  action. 
Repairs  upon  the  temple  were  in  progress,  and  it  was 
so  arranged  that  a  copy  of  the  Deuteronomic  law  was 
found  while  the  temple  was  being  cleared  out.    When 
it  was  read  to  the  king,  he  appealed  to  the  prophetess 
Huldah  to  know  whether  it  was  really  the  law  of  Moses. 
It  corresponded  with  her  conception  of  what  religious 
law  ought  to  be,  so  she  declared  it  genuine.    Thereupon 
Josiah  undertook  to  reform  the  religion  of  his  kingdom, 
so  as  to  bring  it  into  conformity  to  this  law.    The 
country  shrines  were  abolished,  the  cult  was  centralized 
in  Jerusalem,  while  pillars,  asheras,  the  ministers  of 
social  impurity,  and  other  survivals  of  primitive  Semitic 
religion  were  removed.    The  people  of  Judah  did  not 
acquiesce  in  this  reform  much  more  readily  than  in  the 
time  of  Hezekiah  and  Manasseh,  and  a  long  spiritual 
struggle  ensued. 

76.  Jeremiah. — About  six  years  before  the  finding 
of  the  Deuteronomic  law,  Jeremiah,  a  very  young  man, 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     71 

began  to  prophesy,  and  his  prophetic  activity  continued 
for  forty  years  during  the  period  of  Judah's  decline  and 
fall.  The  form  in  which  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  has  come 
down  to  us  is  forbidding,  so  that  few  realize  how  great 
a  prophet  Jeremiah  was.  He  contributed  four  great 
ideas  to  Israel's  religion  which  became  potent  in  after- 
time  and  which  tended  greatly  to  its  purification  and 
advancement.  The  first  of  these  ideas  was  theoretical 
monotheism.  Earlier  prophets  had  been  practical 
monotheists;  it  remained  for  Jeremiah  to  declare  that 
the  gods  of  the  heathen  were  "vanities" — mere  figments 
of  the  imagination  (Jer.  10:15;  14:22).  As  a  corollary 
of  this  conception  he  also  taught  that  Yahweh  was  will- 
ing to  become  the  God  of  the  nations  as  well  as  of  the 
Jews;  that,  if  they  were  repentant,  he  would  receive 
them  (Jer.  16:17-21).  His  third  contribution  was  the 
doctrine  of  the  inwardness  of  religion.  The  heart  must 
be  changed,  not  the  outward  life  only  (Jer.  31:31-34). 
To  these  great  doctrines  Jeremiah  added  that  of  indi- 
vidual responsibility  (Jer.  31 : 29,  30).  Down  to  his  time 
the  nation  or  family  had  been  the  moral  unit  (see  Josh., 
chap.  7),  but  on  that  basis  no  great  progress  could  be 
made  in  personal  religion  or  in  ethics.  The  teaching  of 
Jeremiah  set  religion  free  from  many  time-worn  shackles. 
In  addition  to  these  doctrines,  Jeremiah  revived 
Hosea's  conception  of  the  covenant  of  Yahweh,  enfor- 
cing the  view  that  it  was  a  covenant  of  marriage  and  that 
Yahweh  was  a  God  of  love.  His  view  of  the  inward- 
ness of  religion  enabled  him  to  declare,  when  invaders 
threatened  Jerusalem,  that  its  preservation  was  no 
longer  necessary  to  the  worship  of  Yahweh.  For  the 
time  of  Jeremiah  that  was  true.  The  Deuteronomic 


72  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

law  had  supplied  religion  with  a  tangible  form  from 
which  the  temple  could  be  temporarily  omitted,  and  the 
teaching  of  Jeremiah  had  given  it  an  inward  significance, 
which  for  the  more  choice  spirits  made  it  independent 
of  outward  forms. 

77.  Ezekiel,  a  young  priest  who  had  been  taken  to 
Babylonia  with  those  first  deported  by  Nebuchadrezzar 
hi  597,  began  to  prophesy  five  years  later.  His  pro- 
phetic activity  continued  until  about  570  B.C.  Until 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  586  B.C.,  Ezekiel  in  Babylonia 
reinforced  the  teaching  which  Jeremiah  was  giving  in 
Palestine.  He  was  animated  by  the  same  lofty  ethical 
ideals,  as  is  shown  by  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
chapters  of  his  prophecy.  In  586  B.C.  Jerusalem  was 
again  captured  by  Nebuchadrezzar,  the  temple  was 
destroyed,  and  another  considerable  number  of  the 
more  prominent  inhabitants  were  transported  to  Baby- 
lonia. The  poorer  peasantry  were  left  behind  to  drag 
out  their  existence  among  the  ruins.  After  this  event 
Ezekiel,  who  was  a  priest  as  well  as  a  prophet,  in  brood- 
ing over  the  fortunes  of  his  people  felt  certain  that  at 
some  time  Yahweh  would  rehabilitate  a  Hebrew  state 
in  Palestine,  and  he  drew  up  a  form  of  organization  and 
of  law  for  the  regulation  of  such  a  state  and  its  wor- 
ship; see  Ezek.,  chaps.  40-48.  The  plan  outlined  by 
Ezekiel  advances  a  step  farther  than  the  law  of  Deu- 
teronomy in  blending  prophetic  ideals  with  the  ritual 
law.  Details  are  laid  down  for  the  measurements  of 
temple  and  altar  and  for  various  details  of  the  ritual. 
Ezekiel  first  called  into  existence  a  class  of  Levites  as 
distinct  from  the  priests.  In  Deuteronomy  every 
Levite  had  been  a  potential  priest.  Before  the  exile, 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     73 

so  Ezekiel  informs  us,  the  menial  work  of  the  temple, 
such  as  the  slaying  of  the  sacrifices  and  the  cleansing 
of  the  implements,  had  been  performed  by  foreign 
slaves  (see  Ezek.,  44:8-13).  This  Ezekiel  prohibited, 
and  ordained  that  such  work  should  in  the  future  be 
done  by  the  priests,  who  had  formerly  officiated  in  the 
high  places  which  were  now  abolished. 

78.  Second  Isaiah. — After  the  death  of  Ezekiel  no 
great  Hebrew  voice  was  heard  for  twenty  years.  The 
great  Nebuchadrezzar  died  in  562  B.C.,  and,  after  the 
rapid  succession  of  three  weak  kings,  in  555  the  religious 
devotee  Nabonidus  gained  the  throne.  In  553  B.C. 
Cyrus  the  Persian  overthrew  the  Median  kingdom  and 
inaugurated  that  series  of  conquests  which  created  the 
Persian  empire.  In  546  he  overcame  Croesus,  king  of 
Lydia.  Cyrus  revoked  the  policy  of  transportation 
practiced  by  the  later  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  kings, 
and  permitted  peoples  who  had  been  transported  to 
dominions  which  he  now  conquered  to  return  to  their 
respective  lands  and  revive  their  national  institutions. 
His  deeds  during  these  years  seem  to  have  been  fairly 
well  known  in  Babylon,  which  he  did  not  conquer  until 
538  B.C.  About  550  there  arose  in  Babylonia  a  new 
prophet,  whose  utterances  are  now  summed  up  in  chap- 
ters 40-55  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  We  do  not  know  his 
name,  but  call  him  the  second  Isaiah  because  by  some 
literary  accident  or  misconception  his  prophecies  were 
attached  to  the  book  containing  those  of  Isaiah. 

In  the  first  half  of  his  prophecies  (Isa.,  chaps.  40-48), 
which  were  uttered  before  538  B.C.,  he  asserted  that 
Cyrus  was  conquering  for  Yahweh  and  for  Israel, 
declared  that  the  opportunity  for  Hebrews  to  return  to 


74  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Palestine  was  approaching,  sought  to  impress  his  hearers 
with  the  might  and  majesty  of  Yahweh,  the  only  real 
God,  and  to  prepare  them  to  return  to  their  land  when 
the  opportunity  came.  When  Babylon  fell  and  the 
opportunity  occurred,  but  few  Judaeans  embraced  it, 
in  spite  of  the  prophet's  impassioned  appeals.  He 
accordingly  uttered  another  series  of  discourses  (Isa., 
chaps.  40-55)  to  encourage  them  to  return.  All  through 
his  preaching  he  had  addressed  Israel  as  the  "servant 
of  Yahweh."  When  it  was  necessary  to  reprove  her 
slowness,  she  was  the  unfaithful  servant;  when  he 
thought  of  her  possible  service  in  the  world,  he  por- 
trayed her  as  the  ideal  servant.  This  ideal  he  em- 
bodied in  four  poems,  the  greatest  of  which  constitutes 
Isa.  52:13 — 53:12.  Here  he  pictured  Israel  as  by  her 
sufferings  making  Yahweh  known  to  the  world.  It  was 
thus  that  he  found  a  philosophy  of  the  national  mis- 
fortunes. Israel's  sufferings  had  been  double  the 
amount  that  her  own  sins  deserved  (Isa.  40: 2).  A  part 
of  this  suffering  had  been  incurred  because  she  received 
the  chastisement  due  to  the  nations.  When  the  nations 
beheld,  they  would  repent,  the  prophet  declared,  and 
turn  to  Yahweh  (see  Isa.  52:15;  53:1-5).  An  ideal 
was  thus  called  into  existence  which  no  nation  could 
really  fulfil.  One  only,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  has  fulfilled  it. 
79.  The  Code  of  Holiness. — About  500  B.C.  or 
earlier  (perhaps  during  the  time  of  the  second  Isaiah) 
a  priest  imbued  with  the  prophetic  spirit  drew  up  the  so- 
called  Code  of  Holiness,  which,  excluding  later  additions,1 

1  See  J.  E.  Carpenter  and  G.  Harford-Battersby,  Hexateuch,  II, 
166-81;  or  S.  R.  Driver,  "Leviticus,"  in  Haupt's  Sacred  Books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  pp.  33-53. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     75 

now  constitutes  Lev.,  chaps.  17-26.  This  writer  felt 
the  influence  of  Ezekiel  strongly,  as  his  laws  and 
style  prove.  These  laws  were  another  step  toward 
a  religion  which  should  attain  by  law  what  the  great 
prophets  had  attempted  to  attain  by  loyalty  to  Yahweh. 

80.  The  rebuilding  of  the  temple. — About  520  B.C. 
two  prophets,  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  who  had  apparently 
recently  returned  to  Jerusalem  from  Babylonia,  per- 
suaded the  Judaeans  that  a  lack  of  rain  and  its  conse- 
quent famine  were  evidences  of  Yahweh's  displeasure 
because  the  temple  had  not  been  rebuilt.    The  voices  of 
these  prophets  were  so  persuasive  that  its  rebuilding  was 
undertaken,  and  by  516  B.C.  the  temple  was  completed, 
though  in  a  fashion  far  inferior  to  its  former  splendor. 

81.  The  third  Isaiah. — After  the  completion  of  the 
temple  ordinary  historical  sources  fail  us  for  seventy 
years.    During  this  period,  however,  probably  about 
450  B.C.,  a  prophet  kindred  in  spirit  to  the  second  Isaiah 
came   forward.     His   stirring  appeals  are  now  found 
in  Isa.,  chaps.  56-66,  though  here  and  there  his  words 
have  been  expanded  by  later  editors. 

82.  The  priestly  law. — While  the  third  Isaiah  was 
preaching   in   Jerusalem,  priestly   circles,   probably  in 
Babylonia,  were  busy  making  a   further   codification 
of  the  priestly  law.    In  order  to  give  that  law  and  its 
requirements  a  proper  perspective,  an  account  of  the 
creation  was  written,  as  well  as  brief  narratives  of  the 
chief  crises  of  the  earlier  history.    The  whole  consti- 
tuted the  P  document.1    In  this  law  Ezekiel's  plan  for 

1  For  the  sections  comprising  the  P  document  see  J.  E.  Carpenter 
and  G.  Harford-Battersby,  Hexaieuch,  II;  or  W.  E.  Addis,  Documents 
of  the  Hexateuch  (London,  1898),  II,  195-406. 


76  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Levites  to  perform  the  menial  services  of  the  sanctuary 
was  adopted.  Of  course  these  Levites  were  descended 
from  the  priesthoods  of  the  cities  that  in  the  old  days 
had  possessed  the  most  nourishing  high  places.  Later 
followers  of  the  codifiers  of  the  P  document  drew  from 
this  conclusion  that  all  such  cities  must  have  been 
assigned  by  Joshua  to  Levitical  clans — an  inference  that 
resulted  in  the  distortion  of  historical  perspective  on 
a  gigantic  scale. 

83.  Adoption    of    the    priestly    law. — During    the 
administration  of  Nehemiah,  which  began  in  444  B.C.,  a 
great  convocation  of  Judaeans  was  held  in  the  temple 
court  at  Jerusalem  at  which  the  new  law  was  read  to 
them  and  they  bound  themselves  to  keep  it  (see  Neh., 
chaps.  8-10).    The  adoption  of  this  law  as  the  funda- 
mental law  of  religion  marked  the  complete  transfor- 
mation of  the  religion.    The  old  nature  religion  was 
discarded  and  Judaism  was  born.    While  Judaism  was 
the  result  of  the  transformation  begun  by  the  prophets, 
it  differed  in  many  respects  from  the  prophetic  ideals 
of  the  eighth  century.    To  them  Yahweh  was  a  present 
God,  whose  voice  still  spoke  in  the  hearts  of  his  prophets. 
From  the  priestly  point  of  view  Yahweh  was  a  distant, 
exalted    God,   who   long   ago   spoke   to   Moses.    The 
prophets  had  little  use  for  ritual;   to  the  priests  ritual 
was  of  the  utmost  importance. 

84.  Life  after  death. — To  all  Hebrews  up  to  this 
time  the  dealings  of  Yahweh  with  his  people  were  con- 
fined to  life  on  the  earth.    He  rewarded  his  faithful 
here;  he  punished  the  wicked  in  this  life.    The  pictures 
of  the  life  after  death  drawn  in  Isa.  14:9  ff.  and  Ezek. 
32:22-32  present  the  same  gloomy  non-religious  con- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS     77 

ception  as  that  held  by  the  Babylonians  and  as  that 
reflected  in  the  eleventh  book  of  Homer's  Odyssey. 

85.  Spirits    and    demons. — The    ancient    Hebrews 
thought  that  the  world  was  filled  with  spirits.    These 
spirits  were  non-ethical.    They  were  subject  to  Yahweh, 
and  might  be  sent  by  him  on  missions  either  of  blessing 
to  man  or  of  harm  (see  I  Kings,  chap.  22;  Job,  chaps, 
i  and  2).     In  the  prophetic  period  no  need  was  felt 
for  a  belief  in  Satan.    Yahweh  was  thought  to  do  every- 
thing both  good  and  evil  (see  Amos  3:6;    Isa.  45:7). 
It  was  only  after  the  exile  that  the  figure  of  Satan  began 
to  emerge,  and  he  was  then  only  an  adversary  (Zech. 
3:1),  not  the  full-fledged  prince  of  evil  that  he  after- 
ward became. 

86.  Importance  of  the  Hebrew  religion. — The  devel- 
opment of  Israel's  religion  through  the  influence  of  the 
prophets  from  its  primitive  Semitic  beginnings  to  the 
formation  of  Judaism  is  one  of  the  most  significant 
chapters  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.    In  other 
countries,  as  in  Egypt,  monotheism  was  grasped  by  a 
few;   in  Israel  alone  was  it  made  the  possession  of  the 
people.     Others  conceived  it  as  a  great  idea ;  the  prophets 
linked  it  with  human  rights  and  common  justice.    Per- 
haps even  here  it  would  have  failed  but  for  the  mis- 
fortunes  of   the   Jewish   state.    These   constituted   a 
sifting  process  by  which  the  devotees  of  the  higher  reli- 
gion were  separated  from  the  reactionaries  and  formed 
into  a  community  in  which  it  was  an  axiom  to  men, 
women,  and  children  that  there  is  but  one  God  and  that 
he  demands  a  righteous  life.     In  this  achievement  were 
the  seeds  of  the  best  religious  experience  of  mankind. 
It  was  on  account  of  this  that  the  Hebrew  religion  became 


78  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  mother  of  the  three  great  monotheistic  religions  of 
the  world,  Judaism,  Mohammedanism,  and  Christianity. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  62:  G.  A.  Smith,  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land, 
pp.  43-61. 

On  sec.  63:  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religion  of  Israel  (New  York,  1918), 
chap.  iii. 

On  sees.  64,  65:  L.  B.  Paton  in  the  Biblical  World,  XL VI,  82-88, 
173-80,  and  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXII, 
1-54;  also  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religion  of  Israel,  chap,  iii,  or 
"The  Historical  Value  of  the  Patriarchal  Narratives,"  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  LH,  185-200. 

On.  sec.  66:  G.  A.  Barton,  "Yahweh  before  Moses,"  Studies  in 
the  History  of  Religion  Presented  to  Crawford  Howell  Toy 
by  Pupils,  Colleagues,  and  Friends  (New  York,  1912), 
pp.  187-204. 

On  sec.  67:  G.  A.  Barton,  Religion  of  Israel,  chap.  iv. 

On  sees.  68-86:  G.  A.  Barton,  Religion  of  Israel,  chaps,  v-ix; 
or  K.  Budde,  The  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  Lectures 
H-VI;  W.  E.  Addis,  Hebrew  Religion  (New  York,  1906), 
chaps,  iv-ix;  or  K.  Marti,  The  Religion  of  the  Old  Testament 
(New  York,  1907),  chaps,  ii-iv. 

CLASS  B 

H.  T.  Fowler,  The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Hebrew  Religion 
(Chicago:  The  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1916);  J.  M.  P. 
Smith,  The  Prophet  and  His  Problems  (New  York,  1914). 


CHAPTER  V 

JUDAISM 

The  law  of  Yahweh  is  perfect,  restoring  the  soul. 

—Ps.  19:7. 

Oh  how  love  I  thy  law! 
It  is  my  meditation  all  the  day. 

— Ps.  119:97. 

Behold  the  fear  of  Yahweh,  that  is  wisdom; 
And  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding. 

—Job  28:28. 

But  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  shall  receive  the  king- 
dom, and  possess  the  kingdom  for  ever,  even  for  ever  and  ever. — 
Dan.  7:18. 

Simon  the  Just  was  one  of  the  last  of  the  great  synagogue, 
He  used  to  say:  "The  world  rests  upon  three  things — upon  the 
law,  upon  the  service,  and  upon  the  charity  of  the  pious." — Pirqe 
Aboth  i,  2. 

Until  what  tune  do  they  recite  the  Shema1  in  the  evening? 
....  The  wise  say:  "until  midnight."  Rabban  Gamaliel 
says:  "until  the  dawn  of  morning." — Berakoth  i,  i. 

87.  The  Persian  period. — The  adoption  of  the  Law 
in  the  time  of  Nehemiah  led,  as  pointed  out  in  the  last 
chapter,  to  the  establishment  of  Judaism.  Not  all  the 
Jews  were  resident  in  Palestine.  Most  of  those  who 
had  been  settled  in  Babylonia  did  not  return,  but  con- 
tinued to  live  there.  Babylonian  business  documents 
of  the  Persian  period  contain  a  large  number  of  Jewish 

1  Shema  ("hear")  is  the  Jewish  name  for  the  great  confession  of 
faith  found  in  Deut.  6:4!.,  beginning  "Hear,  O  Israel:  Yahweh  our 
God  is  one  Yahweh." 

79 


8o  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

names.  This  colony,  known  as  the  Goliouth,  or  "Cap- 
tivity," continued  for  fifteen  hundred  years  to  be  an 
important  colony  in  Babylonia.  Like  their  brethren 
in  Palestine,  the  Babylonian  Jews  accepted  the  priestly 
law.  Indeed,  it  is  the  belief  of  most  scholars  that  it  had 
been  compiled  among  them  by  disciples  of  Ezekiel. 
From  Babylonia  Jews  had  spread  eastward  to  Media  and 
Persia.  A  considerable  Jewish  colony  existed  at  Ele- 
phantine in  Egypt  also.  They  possessed  a  temple,  and 
apparently  did  not  receive  the  new  law  at  once.1 

When  the  temple  was  rebuilt  at  Jerusalem  and  the 
worship  was  reorganized,  an  appropriate  hymn  book 
was  necessary,  hence  the  first  portion  of  the  Psalter 
(Pss.  3-41)  was  compiled.  Enthusiasm  for  the  Law  and 
the  high  hopes  it  awakened  in  many  pious  souls  are 
reflected  in  some  of  these  psalms,  as  in  Ps.  19: 7-11. 

Extensive  as  was  the  influence  of  the  Law  it  did  not, 
however,  enlist  the  affections  of  all.  The  sages  appear 
to  have  been  almost  untouched  by  it.  About  400  B.C. 
one  of  these  composed  the  great  poem  which  is  now  the 
Book  of  Job.  He  was  a  devout  Israelite  and  a  believer 
in  Yahweh,  but  he  investigated  and  discussed  the  prob- 
lems of  life  with  a  freedom  entirely  untrammeled  by 
the  Law.  In  his  poem  the  problem  of  suffering  is  treated 
in  a  way  that  proves  the  inadequacy  of  the  popular 
theology  and  portrays  the  growth  that  may  come  to  a 
soul  in  the  crucible  of  suffering.2 

Josephus  informs  us3  that  about  350  B.C.  the  Persian 
general  Bagoses  dealt  very  harshly  with  the  Jews  for 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  chap.  rix. 
'See  G.  A.  Barton,  "Job,"  Bible  for  Home  and  School  (New  York, 
1911),  pp.  7-12. 

J  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  XI,  vii,  i. 


JUDAISM  81 

seven  years.  Many  scholars  think  that  the  cause  of  this 
was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  to  gain  their 
independence.  This  attempt  is  believed  to  have  called 
forth  much  national  and  religious  enthusiasm,  and  to 
have  been  the  occasion  of  the  compilation  of  two  more 
books  of  the  Psalter,  Pss.  42-73,  to  which  Pss.  84-89 
were  later  added  as  an  appendix. 

88.  The  Samaritans. — The  Book  of  Nehemiah  shows 
that  friction  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans 
existed  as  early  as  the  fifth  century.    The  Samaritans 
wished  to  be  counted  as  Jews;  the  Jews  looked  on  them 
with   suspicion   because   of   their   mixed   descent   (see 
II  Kings  17:24-34).    Before  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great  the  friction  had  become  so  acute  that  the  schism 
was   complete.    The   Samaritans   built   a   temple   on 
Mount  Gerizim  and  became  a  separate  sect  (see  John 
4:20),  which  has  persisted,  though  with  greatly  dimin- 
ished numbers,  to  the  present  day.1    They  took  as  their 
Bible  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Book  of  Joshua,  though 
they  have  transformed  Joshua  so  freely  that  it  is  hardly 
recognizable. 

89.  The    Greek    period. — With    the    conquest    of 
Palestine  by  Alexander  in  332  Palestine  passed  under 
Hellenic  control.    After  his  death  both  the  Ptolemies 
of  Egypt  and  the  Seleucidae  of  Antioch  offered  Jews 
inducements  to  settle  in  various  cities  of  their  dominions. 
The  settlements  thus  made  tended  to  scatter  the  Dias- 
pora, as  the  Jews  outside  of  Palestine  were  called,  more 
widely,  and  to  bring  them  into  contact  with  the  varied 
life  of  the  world.     So  many  of  them  settled  at  Alexandria 

1  For  the  character  and  history  of  the  Samaritan  sect,  see  J.  A. 
Montgomery,  The  Samaritans  (Philadelphia.  1907). 


82  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  Egypt  that  it  became  a  little  Judaea.  There  about 
250  B.C.  the  translation  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  into 
Greek,  known  as  the  Septuagint,  was  begun.  Mean- 
time Palestine,  subject  at  first  to  the  Ptolemies,  then 
a  bone  of  contention  between  them  and  the  Seleucidae, 
passed  in  199  B.C.  under  the  dominion  of  the  Syrian 
monarchs.  It  felt  the  influence  of  the  various  currents 
of  life  and  thought  that  swayed  the  world,  although  the 
Jews  resident  in  it  were  far  more  sheltered  than  their 
brethren  of  the  Diaspora. 

In  Judaea  the  variety  of  thought  manifested  in  the 
Persian  period  continued.  The  sages  were  active. 
The  book  of  Proverbs,  the  collection  of  which  was,  per- 
haps, begun  under  the  Persians,  was  brought  to  com- 
pletion.1 An  unknown  sage  composed,  about  200  B.C., 
the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  hi  which  the  skeptical  influences 
generated  by  Greek  thought  are  clearly  apparent.3 
About  twenty  years  later  Joshua,  son  of  Sirach,  com- 
posed the  book  commonly  called  Ecclesiasticus.  Devo- 
tees of  the  Law  were  not,  however,  wanting.  Its 
precepts  were  cherished  by  many,  and  its  priestly  regu- 
lations were  not  only  pondered,  but  supplemented. 

90.  The  rise  of  apocalyptic  literature. — Before  the 
organization  of  Judaism  the  voice  of  prophecy  had  nearly 
ceased.  After  that  time  there  were  but  few  to  prophesy, 
and  their  voices  were  not  strong.  Such  were  Joel,  the 
author  of  Isa.,  chaps.  24-27,  and  of  Zech.,  chaps.  9-14. 
This  last  prophet  lived  in  the  Greek  period,  perhaps  as 

1See  Cornill,  Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Literature  of  the  Old 
Testament,  pp.  437-47. 

•See  the  introduction  to  G.  A.  Barton,  "Commentary  on  Eccle- 
siastes," International  Critical  Commentary. 


JUDAISM  83 

late  as  250  B.C.,  and  predicted  that  there  should  be  no 
more  prophets  after  him  (see  Zech.  13:2-5).  After  this 
time  no  one  dared  to  speak  in  his  own  name  as  a  mouth- 
piece of  Yahweh.  Struggling  humanity  could  not  rest 
satisfied  without  religious  guidance,  so  after  200  B.C. 
there  arose  a  succession  of  apocalyptists,  who  couched 
the  teaching  the  age  needed  in  the  form  of  visions  which 
were  attributed  to  some  famous  person  of  ancient  times. 

Six  such  apocalypses  were  attributed  to  Enoch,  one 
to  Noah,  one  to  Moses,  one  to  Isaiah,  six  to  Baruch, 
one  to  Shealtiel,  two  to  Ezra,  one  to  Daniel,  one  to 
each  of  Jacob's  sons,  not  to  mention  apocalyptic  frag- 
ments attributed  to  Solomon  and  the  Sibyl.  The 
earliest  of  these,  written  between  200  and  170  B.C.,  was 
attributed  to  Enoch  and  is  now  embodied  in  Enoch, 
chaps.  1-36.  The  sources  of  apocalyptic  visions  were 
unfulfilled  prophecy  and  the  Babylonian  creation-myth. 
The  Babylonian  myth  gave  the  apocalyptists  their 
philosophy  of  the  universe.  Evil  was  personified  as 
a  great  world-power,  and,  they  thought,  that  just  as 
in  the  myth  there  had  been  a  great  struggle  before 
the  present  heavens  and  earth  could  be  created — 
a  struggle  in  which  the  dragon  had  been  overcome — so 
there  would  be  a  great  conflict  before  the  new  heaven 
and  new  earth  could  be  created.  Under  the  influ- 
ences of  this  apocalyptic  material  the  messianic  hope 
was  eventually  transformed  from  the  expectation  of  an 
earthly  king  of  the  Davidic  dynasty  to  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  heavenly  Messiah  who  should  come  on  the 
clouds  of  heaven. 

91.  TheMaccabean  revolt. — The  readiness  with  which 
certain  Jews  accepted  Hellenic  ideas  led  Antiochus  IV 


84  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  Syria  to  attempt  in  168  B.C.  to  suppress  the  Jewish 
religion  and  forcibly  to  establish  Hellenic  religion  in  its 
place.  This  led  to  the  so-called  Maccabean  uprising, 
which  was  supported  by  the  most  ardent  devotees  of  the 
Law.  After  a  struggle  of  twenty-five  years,  through 
various  vicissitudes,  military,  political,  and  religious, 
the  Jews  won  their  independence,  emerging  from  the 
struggle  with  Simon  the  Maccabee  as  their  high  priest 
and  prince — two  offices  which  they  made  hereditary  in 
his  house.1  This  successful  uprising  called  forth  the 
greatest  national  and  religious  enthusiasm.  The  hopes 
and  fears  of  its  early  stages  are  reflected  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  written  between  168  and  165  B.C.;  the  religious 
aspirations  and  enthusiasm  are  mirrored  in  Books  IV 
and  V  of  the  Psalter  (Pss.  90-150),  which  were  compiled 
just  at  the  close  of  this  period. 

92.  The  synagogue. — The  origin  of  the  synagogue 
is  shrouded  in  obscurity.  When  it  is  first  mentioned  in 
religious  literature  it  was  an  institution  already  old. 
It  apparently  arose  before  the  Maccabean  revolt,  as 
the  burning  of  synagogues  is  one  of  the  atrocities  laid 
to  the  Syrians  in  Ps.  74 : 8 — a  psalm  which  was  probably 
re-edited  in  the  Maccabean  period.  Perhaps  the  syna- 
gogue originated  in  Babylonia.  In  any  case  it  was 
intended  to  be  a  place  for  the  public  reading  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  Law  and  for  united  prayer.  It  was 
introduced  into  Palestine,  not  only  into  the  country 
villages  far  from  the  temple,  but  into  Jerusalem  itself. 
Little  by  little  the  synagogue  became  the  center  of  the 
religious  life  of  Judaism,  especially  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple.  Its  democratic  services  are  elastic 

1  See  I  Mace.  13:35-41. 


JUDAISM  85 

and  have  adapted  themselves  to  all  the  forms  of  Jewish 
life.1 

93.  Rise  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees. — Under  the 
descendants  of  Simon,  who  are  often  called  Asmonaeans, 
the  Jews  were  independent  for  eighty  years.  These 
princes  soon  assumed  the  title  of  king  and  conquered 
practically  all  the  territory  over  which  David  had  ruled. 
The  pious  devotees  of  the  Law  did  not  relish  having 
a  worldly  high  priest  who  played  politics  and  engaged 
in  wars.  Little  by  little  they  developed  their  ideas  into 
a  tolerably  consistent  system  and  took  the  name  "Phari- 
sees," or  separated  ones,  to  signify  their  idea  that  the 
Jews  should  be  separate  from  the  world.  They  came 
into  particular  prominence  as  an  opposition  party  in  the 
reign  of  Alexander  Jannaeus,  104-79  B-c*>  and  were  so 
strong  that  upon  his  death  Alexander  advised  his  wife 
to  make  her  peace  with  them.  During  her  reign,  there- 
fore, they  were  the  dominant  party  and  continued  to 
exert  a  paramount  influence  in  Judaism.  With  refer- 
ence to  legal  customs  they  were  conservative,  insisting 
upon  the  rigid  fulfilment  of  the  Law;  hi  thought  they 
were  in  some  respects  more  advanced,  accepting,  for 
example,  the  newer  conception  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  (see  Dan.  12:2-4).  The  Sadducees  were  more 
conservative  in  thought,  adhering  to  the  older  Hebrew 
non-belief  in  a  resurrection,  while  in  practice  they  were 
less  rigid,  and  did  not  insist  so  strictly  upon  all  the 
details  of  the  Law. 

Another  somewhat  obscure  sect  that  developed 
before  the  Christian  era  was  the  Essenes,  who  mingled 
with  the  observance  of  the  Jewish  law  some  elements  of 

1  See  "Synagogue"  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 


86  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Persian  thought.  They  were  not  very  numerous  and 
lived  in  coenobitic  communities. 

94.  The  oral  law. — The  desire  of  the  Pharisees  to 
give  strict  adherence  to  the  Pentateuch  in  all  the  details 
of  life  led  to  a  careful  study  of  its  requirements  and  to 
definite  interpretations  of  them.  These  interpretations 
led  to  the  formulation  of  traditional  rules  as  to  what 
was  and  what  was  not  allowed  by  the  Law.  These  tra- 
ditions were  ultimately  written  down  in  the  Mishnah, 
but  for  two  centuries  or  more  they  were  passed 
from  rabbi  to  pupil  as  traditions  and  constituted  the 
oral  law. 

In  the  reign  of  Herod  the  Great  (37-4  B.C.)  the  first 
schools  for  the  conservation  and  transmission  of  this 
oral  law  were  organized  in  Jerusalem.  Shammai  was 
the  head  of  the  school  of  strictly  literal  interpretation; 
Hillel,  who  had  been  born  in  Babylonia,  was  the  head 
of  the  school  of  more  liberal  interpretation.  Hillel,  for 
example,  so  interpreted  the  law  against  taking  interest 
in  Deut.  23 : 19,  20  that  it  was  practically  set  aside  and 
the  Jews  were  permitted  to  become  a  commercial  people. 
Shammai  and  Hillel  had  their  successors  in  Judaism  for 
many  centuries.  In  interpreting  the  Law  and  applying 
it  to  the  details  of  the  life  of  a  continuous  community, 
these  rabbis  naturally  developed  the  Law.  The  oral 
law,  like  the  Pharisaic  movement  out  of  which  it  sprang, 
is  evidence  of  an  intense  desire  to  do  the  will  of  God 
and  to  order  the  earthly  life  according  to  the  expressed 
will  of  heaven.  God  had,  however,  become  to  these 
men  remote.  His  voice,  once  heard,  was  thought  to 
have  been  long  silent.  The  best  that  religion  could  do 
was  to  treasure  the  words  uttered  long  ago. 


JUDAISM  87 

95.  Philo. — While  in  Jerusalem  and  Babylonia  Phari- 
saism was  developing,  in  some  of  the  western  settle- 
ments of  the  Diaspora  Judaism  was  being  broadened 
by  contact  with  philosophic  thought.    This  was  nota- 
bly the  case  in  Alexandria,  where  Philo  Judaeus,  born 
about  20  B.C.,  lived  and  wrote.     He  died  before  40  A.D. 
and  was  accordingly  a  contemporary  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth.   Philo  was  the  successor  of   the  sages   of    the 
earlier  tune.    A  thorough  monotheist,  he  approached 
the  problems  of  life  from   the  standpoint  of  reason 
rather  than  from  that  of  the  Law.     He  was  profoundly 
affected  by  Greek  philosophy,  and  developed  a  doctrine 
of  the  Logos,  or  Word,  as  an  emanation  from  God  which 
in  some  respects  resembles  that  in  the  Gospel  of  John, 
though  in  some  of  its  phases  it  is  quite  different  from 
that. 

96.  Judaism  in  the  time  of  Paul. — Jewish  life  in  the 
first  century  of  the  Christian  era  presented  great  variety, 
nevertheless  it  was  all  bound  together  by  the  doctrine 
of  monotheism  and  by  the  congregational  life  of  the 
synagogue.    The   ideals   of   the   Pharisees   were   very 
influential  far  beyond  the  borders  of  Palestine.    Paul, 
for  example,  born  at  Tarsus  of  a  family  that  had  appar- 
ently been  resident  there  for  nearly  two  centuries,1  was 
sent   to   Jerusalem   to   be   educated   under   Gamaliel, 
HilleFs  great  successor.    Paul,  though  of  the  Diaspora, 
was  a  Pharisee.    No  doubt  his  case  is  typical  of  many. 
Paul's  missionary  journeys  afford  glimpses,  even  if  pre- 
judiced glimpses,  into  many  synagogues.    Distinguished 
strangers,  if  Jews,  were  invited  to  explain  the  lessons 

1  See  W.  M.  Ramsay,  The  Cities  of  St.  Paul  (New  York,  1908), 
pp.  180-86. 


88  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  the  day  at  the  Sabbath  services,  and  Paul  found  in 
this  his  opportunity  to  present  his  Christian  point  of 
view.  The  uniformity  with  which  it  was  rejected  is 
proof  of  the  inner  coherence  of  the  scattered  Judaism  of 
the  time.  In  Palestine  itself  intolerance  of  foreign  rule 
was  steadily  growing.  In  the  year  66  this  led  to  open 
revolt,  which  in  the  year  70  resulted  in  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  and  the  final  annihilation  of  the  temple. 

97.  Jamnia. — Before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
the  city  of  Jabneh  in  the  Philistine  plain,  called  by  the 
Greeks  Jamnia,  had  become  an  important  center  of 
Jewish  learning.     It  is  the  same  as  the  Jabneel  of  Josh. 
15:11.    Upon  the  destruction  of   Jerusalem  the  San- 
hedrin  moved  to  Jamnia,  where  its  sessions  were  held 
most  of  the  time  until  the  rebellion  of  Bar  Chocheba, 
132-35  A.D.    The  famous  Rabbi  Akiba,  who  was  born 
about  50  and  died  132  A.D.,  lived  here.     In  the  discus- 
sions of  the  rabbis  at  Jamnia  the  oral  law  was  further 
developed,  and  it  was  decided  that  Ecclesiastes  and  the 
Song  of  Songs  are  canonical  Scripture.    This  decision 
finally  closed  the  Old  Testament  Canon. 

98.  The   Talmudic   period. — The   Talmud   consists 
of  two  main  strata,  the  Mishnah  and  Gemara.     Each 
of  these  consists  of  several  strata  of  traditions.    The 
Mishnah  rests  upon  the  collection  of  the   traditions 
made  by  Rabbi  Judah,  the  Prince,  hi  the  early  part  of 
the  third  century  A.D.     These  traditions  were  of  gradual 
growth.     They  had  been  given  shape  by  the  pupils  of 
Hillel  and  Shammai-in  the  first  century.     In  time  the 
wording  of  the  traditions  was  found  to  differ  in  differ- 
ent schools,  and  the  Sanhedrin  of  Jabneh  at  the  end  of 
the  first  century  examined  them,  assorted  them,  and 


JUDAISM  89 

determined  their  exact  wording.  Later  they  were 
revised  by  Rabbi  Akiba,  who  excluded  many  traditional 
interpretations  and  abbreviated  others.  By  the  end 
of  the  second  century  many  variations  had  again  crept 
into  the  traditions,  and  Rabbi  Judah,  the  Prince,  in 
order  to  secure  uniformity,  re-examined  the  interpre- 
tations and  committed  them  to  writing.  Up  to  this 
tune  there  had  been  a  strong  prejudice  against  allowing 
the  traditions  to  be  written.  The  edition  of  Rabbi 
Judah  was  so  convenient  and  his  reputation  was  so  great 
that  his  revision  soon  supplanted  all  traditional  forms  of 
the  text  in  the  schools  both  of  Palestine  and  of  Baby- 
lonia. Thus  the  Mishnah  was  completed.  The  name 
means  "repetition,"  and  then  "law  learned  by  repe- 
tition." It  is  derived  from  the  method  of  study  in  the 
rabbinical  schools,  where  the  pupil  repeated  the  words 
of  the  teacher  until  he  knew  them  by  heart.  The 
rabbis  who  formulated  the  traditions  of  the  Mishnah 
are  called  Tanaim  or  "Repeaters."  They  lived  before 
200  A.D. 

After  the  formation  of  the  Mishnah  the  development 
of  the  traditional  law  went  on  for  three  hundred  years 
in  the  schools  of  Palestine  and  of  Babylonia.  As  the 
advancing  life  of  the  community  called  for  the  appli- 
cation of  the  law  to  new  situations,  the  law  was  devel- 
oped by  interpretation.  In  the  sixth  century  the 
traditions  later  than  the  Mishnah  were  written  down  in 
the  Gemara.  The  rabbis  who  contributed  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Gemara  are  called  Amoraim  or  "Sayers." 
They  did  not  lay  claim  to  as  high  an  authority  as  the 
Tanaim  and  their  words  are  even  less  fresh  and  vital 
than  those  of  their  predecessors.  The  Gemara  is  in 


90  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

reality  in  the  nature  of  a  commentary  on  the  Mishnah. 
The  two  together  constitute  the  Talmud. 

Although  the  Talmud  is  not  inspiring  reading,  it 
reveals  to  us  a  people  of  great  religious  devotion  and 
earnestness — a  people  groping  after  God,  anxious  in 
every  detail  of  life  to  do  his  will,  and  ready  to  make 
any  and  every  sacrifice  to  obey  him.  If  they  lived  on 
tradition,  because  they  thought  the  voice  of  God  now 
silent,  they  did  not  in  this  respect  differ  from  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  tune.  The  Talmud  shaped  the  main  course 
of  orthodox  Judaism  and  is,  after  the  Bible,  its  chief 
religious  book.  Philo  and  Alexandrian  Jewish  thought 
left  no  permanent  impress  on  Judaism,  partly  because 
of  the  Jewish  aversion  to  Christianity,  which  had 
appropriated  the  Alexandrian  conceptions,  and  partly 
because  of  the  decline  of  philosophical  thinking. 

99.  The  Geonim. — The  head  of  a  rabbinical  school 
in  Babylonia  was  given  the  title  Gaon,  "Majesty" — 
in  the  plural,  Geonim.  After  the  completion  of  the 
Talmud  until  the  eleventh  century  the  schools  of 
Babylonia  had  such  a  reputation  that  the  decisions  of 
these  Geonim  were  widely  accepted.  After  the  Moham- 
medan conquest  in  the  seventh  century  the  Geonim  were 
accepted  as  the  arbiters  of  practice  in  the  countries 
under  Mohammedan  rule — the  East  and  Spain — but 
later  their  decisions  were  eagerly  sought  and  widely 
accepted  all  over  Europe.  Their  authority  waned  in  the 
eleventh  century. 

loo.  The  Karaites  are  a  Jewish  sect  which  split  off 
from  the  main  body  in  the  eighth  century.  The  sect 
had  its  origin  hi  Babylonia;  its  founder  was  Anan  ben 
David,  an  Exilarch,  or  leader  of  the  Captivity,  as  the 


JUDAISM  91 

Jewish  colony  in  Babylonia  was  still  called.  The  move- 
ment was  a  revolt  against  tradition  and  rabbinism  and 
an  attempt  to  follow  the  Bible  only.  The  name  of  the 
sect  comes  from  kdra,  "to  read,"  and  expresses  the  desire 
of  its  members  to  guide  their  lives  by  what  could  be 
read  in  the  Bible  rather  than  by  what  had  been  handed 
down  by  tradition.  Anan  recognized,  however,  that 
the  biblical  laws  could  not  apply  literally  to  all  the 
details  of  the  life  of  his  day,  and  through  the  influence 
of  the  system  of  Abu  Hanifa,  a  Mohammedan  lawyer,  he 
recognized  that  biblical  laws  could  be  extended  by 
analogy  and  by  allegorical  interpretation.  Allegorical 
exegesis  really  opened  the  way  to  extend  the  law  by 
speculation,  though  the  speculations  were  introduced 
under  cover  of  biblical  interpretations. 

While  the  Karaites  rejected  the  traditions,  they  did 
not  succeed  in  entirely  emancipating  themselves  from 
them.  They  are  accused  by  orthodox  Jews  of  reverting 
to  principles  of  the  Sadducees  and  the  Essenes  as  well 
as  of  being  profoundly  influenced  by  Mohammedanism. 
During  the  first  two  or  three  centuries  of  their  existence 
the  Karaites  made  many  converts  in  Babylonia,  Persia, 
Syria,  Palestine,  and  Egypt.  In  the  twelfth  century 
they  began  to  make  converts  in  Europe,  gaining 
many  in  the  Byzantine  Empire,  where  they  flourished 
until  its  fall  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Later  many 
were  found  in  Lithuania  and  in  Russia.  In  Russia 
they  exist  in  considerable  numbers  at  the  present 
time. 

101.  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages. — By  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century  the  influence  of  the  Babylonian 
schools  upon  Judaism  had  begun  to  decline.  Babylon 


Q2  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

had  given  to  Jewry  the  written  Law,  and,  in  the  Baby- 
lonian Talmud,  the  traditional  law  in  its  most  widely 
accepted  form.  The  decisions  of  her  Geonim  had  been 
widely  accepted;  but  now  the  glory  departed  from  the 
Jewish  communities  of  Babylonia.  Babylonian  scholars 
are  said  to  have  migrated  and  founded  rabbinical  schools 
in  Alexandria,  Kairwan,  near  the  site  of  Carthage,  Cor- 
dova, and  perhaps  at  Narbonne.  Until  the  sixteenth 
century  the  life  of  the  Jews  was  comparatively  free  in  the 
countries  around  the  Mediterranean.  Jewish  scholars 
distinguished  themselves  among  the  scholars  of  the 
world,  and  a  number  of  Jewish  poets  flourished. 

Among  the  gifted  poets  was  Moses  Ibn  Ezra  (1070- 
1 138) ;  among  the  distinguished  philosophers  of  the  time 
was  Ibn  Gabirol  (Avicibron)  (1021-58).  In  this  period 
four  scholars  flourished  who  profoundly  influenced  the 
Judaism  of  the  West.  They  were  Solomon  Bar  Isaac, 
called  Rashi  (1040-1105),  who  lived  in  France  and 
whose  commentaries  on  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud  were 
\rery  influential;  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra  (1093-1138),  a 
native  of  Toledo  in  Spain,  whose  commentaries  on  the 
Pentateuch  and  many  other  books  of  the  Bible  were  of 
great  importance;  Moses  Ben  Maimon,  or  Maimonides 
(1135-1204),  who  was  a  philosopher  as  well  as  an  exegete, 
who  endeavored  to  reconcile  Aristotle  with  the  Bible,  and 
whose  principles  of  interpreting  the  Talmud,  though 
they  really  set  some  parts  of  the  traditional  law  aside, 
were  generally  accepted;  and  David  Kimchi  (1160- 
1235),  who  learned  from  the  Arabian  scholars  the  gram- 
matical science  which  they  in  turn  had  learned  from  the 
Greeks,  and  who  applied  it  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible.  Kimchi  was  influential,  not  only  among 


JUDAISM  93 

Jews,  but  among  the  Christian  reformers  who  studied 
his  grammatical  works,  and  through  them  he  profoundly 
influenced  the  Protestant  scholarship  of  a  later  age. 
Maimonides  surpassed  all  these  in  influence.  He  is  often 
called  by  the  Jews  the  second  Moses.  In  this  period 
Jewish  scholars  and  religious  thinkers  were  more  able 
and  were  better  equipped  than  those  of  Christendom. 

102.  Period  of  the  Ghetto. — In  1492  the  Jews  were 
expelled  from  Spain,  and  in  the  next  century  in  most 
European   countries   they  were   compelled   to   live  in 
separate  quarters  of  the  towns  where  they  resided.     If 
these  quarters  were  sufficiently  large  at  first,  they  soon 
ceased  to  be  on  account  of  the  natural  increase  of  the 
population.    Herded  in  these  narrow  ghettos  and  pro- 
hibited generally  from  acquiring  an  education  in  the 
languages  of  the  countries  in  which  they  resided,  they 
made  the  synagogue  the  center  of  Jewish  life.    Through 
centuries  of  ostracism  they  kept  their  faith,  though  they 
produced  no  such  thinkers  as  in  the  preceding  period. 

103.  Jewish  emancipation. — Moses  Ben  Menahem- 
Mendel,  or  Moses  Mendelssohn  (1729-1786),  is  counted 
by  the  Jews  as  Moses  the  Third,  or  Moses  the  Emanci- 
pator.   He  was  born  at  Dessau  and  educated  in  Berlin. 
Having  himself  by  indomitable  energy  gained  an  edu- 
cation, he  formed  friendships  with  a  number  of  dis- 
tinguished Germans,  the  most  important  of  whom  was 
Lessing.    He  translated  the  Pentateuch  into  German. 
His   coreligionists,   studying   this,   became   acquainted 
with  the  language  of  the  country  and  thus  had  access 
to  modern  learning.     One  of  his  most  famous  works 
was  entitled  Jerusalem.    In  it  he  made  a  plea  for  the 
emancipation  of  Judaism  and  argued  for  the  separation 


94  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  church  and  state.  This  work  had  a  wide  influence. 
The  emancipation  of  the  Jews  hi  France,  begun  in  1784, 
was  completed  by  the  French  Revolution.  Between 
1782  and  1814  it  followed  hi  Austria  and  Germany. 
Other  countries  took  similar  action,  so  that  in  Western 
Europe  the  shackles  were  struck  from  the  Jews,  though 
in  Russia  the  mediaeval  conditions  prevailed  until  the 
revolution  of  1917. 

104.  Zionism. — During  the  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era  Judaism  never  entirely  lost  the  messianic  hope.    In 
times  of  persecution  it  was  revived,  and  at  all  tunes  the 
prayers  recited  hi  the  synagogue  asked  for  the  coming 
of  Messiah  and  the  restoration  to  Palestine.    The  long 
residence  of  the  Jews  in  different  lands,  where,  after  the 
emancipation,   they  became   the   citizens   of   different 
countries,  led  in  some  sections  to  an  abandoning  of 
Israel's  national  hopes. 

Nevertheless,  since  1895  an  extensive  movement 
for  the  recovery  of  Palestine  and  the  establishment  of 
a  Jewish  state  has  arisen,  and  is  backed  by  an  extensive 
organization.  This  movement  is  due  to  the  influence  of 
Theodor  Herzl's  book  The  Jewish  State,  the  German 
original  of  which  was  published  in  1895.  It  is  called 
Zionism.  Its  adherents  are  orthodox  Jews.  They 
regard  the  Law  as  binding  and  Israel  as  hi  exile.  Until 
the  temple  can  be  rebuilt  she  is  compelled  to  break 
many  of  the  laws  of  the  Pentateuch. 

105.  Reform  Judaism. — Reform  Judaism  began  hi 
Germany  about  1845,  DUt  has  its  center  now  hi  the 
United  States.     It  is  the  result  of  the  impact  of  modern 
science — evolution,  biblical  criticism,  and  philosophy — 
upon   Jewish   teachers.    Reform   Judaism   rejects   the 


JUDAISM  95 

messianic  hope  and  looks  for  no  restoration  to  Palestine. 
It  regards  Judaism  simply  as  a  religion.  It  distinguishes 
between  the  moral  and  the  ceremonial  law,  regarding 
all  ceremonial  laws  as  natural  evolutions,  and  holds 
itself  at  liberty  to  reject  them  except  in  so  far  as  time- 
honored  custom  is  psychologically  necessary  to  religion. 
The  dietary  laws  are  generally  disregarded,  and  the 
prayers  of  the  synagogue  are  much  modified.  Organs 
and  mixed  choirs  furnish  music  in  the  reform  synagogues. 
Reform  Jews  substitute  for  the  messianic  hope  the  con- 
ception of  Israel  as  a  messianic  people,  chosen  to  teach 
the  world  of  the  one  true  God.  They  believe  that  the 
Aaronic  priesthood  has  passed  away;  every  Jew  is  a 
priest.  The  world  and  humanity  are,  in  their  view, 
under  God's  guidance;  humanity  is  not  innately  sinful; 
it  is  Israel's  mission  to  acquaint  every  being  with  the  fact 
that  he  is  a  child  of  God  and  to  call  him  to  a  righteous  life. 
1 06.  The  spirit  of  Judaism,  whether  orthodox  or 
reform,  is  still  noble.  Jews  regard  themselves  as  the 
heirs  of  the  prophets,  as  the  preachers  of  monotheism, 
and  the  champions  of  social  righteousness.  Among 
themselves  they  exhibit  a  good  degree  of  social  solidar- 
ity, helping  one  another  now,  as  they  have  during 
centuries  of  persecution,  in  many  practical  ways.  They 
have  in  modern  tunes  furnished,  too,  a  good  quota  of  the 
world's  notable  philanthropists. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sees.  87  and  89-93:  cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religion  of  Israel, 
chaps,  viii-xvi;  or  J.  P.  Peters,  The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews, 
chaps,  xxiv-xxix,  and  "Synagogue"  in  the  Jewish  Ency- 
clopedia. 


96  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

On  sec.  88:  J.  A.  Montgomery,  The  Samaritans,  passim. 

On  sec.  94:  the  article  "Oral  Law"  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

On  sec.  95:  "  Philo  "  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia;  or  James  Drum- 
mond,  Philo  Judaeus  (London,  1888). 

On  sees.  96-98:  "Mishnah"  and  "Talmud"  hi  the  Jewish  Ency- 
clopedia; and  Hershon,  Treasures  of  the  Talmud  (London, 
1882),  passim;  also  Hereford,  Christianity  in  Talmud  and 
Midrash  (London,  1903),  passim. 

On  sees.  99,  100:  " Geonim  "  and  "Karaites"  in  the  Jewish  Ency- 
clopedia. 

On  sees.  101,  102:  "Ghetto"  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia;  or 
I.  Abrahams,  Jewish  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages  (Philadelphia, 
1906),  passim. 

On  sees.  103-105:  "Emancipation,"  "Zionism,"  "Reform  Juda- 
ism," "Moses  Mendelssohn,"  and  "Theodor  Herzl"  in  the 
Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

On  sec.  106:  "Judaism"  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia;  M.  Fried- 
lander,  The  Jewish  Religion  (London,  1900);  I.  Abrahams, 
Judaism  (London,  1910). 

CLASS  B 

I.  Abrahams,  Judaism,  1910. 


CHAPTER  VI 
MOHAMMEDANISM 

Say:  He  is  God  alone,  the  everlasting  God;  he  does  not  beget, 
and  he  is  not  begotten;  and  there  is  not  one  equal  to  him. — Koran, 
Sura  cxii. 

Fear  God  ....  surely  God  is  knowing  and  wise. — Koran, 
Sura  xxxiii,  i. 

God  is  forgiving  and  merciful. — Koran,  Sura  xxxiii,  5. 

Those  who  misbelieve,  for  them  are  cut  out  garments  of  fire. 
There  shall  be  poured  over  their  heads  boiling  water,  wherewith 
what  is  in  their  bellies  shall  be  dissolved  and  their  skins  too,  and 
for  them  are  maces  of  iron.  Whenever  they  desire  to  come  forth 
therefrom  through  pain,  they  are  sent  back  into  it:  "And  taste 
ye  the  torment  of  the  burning." — Koran,  Sura  xxii,  20. 

Is  the  reward  of  goodness  aught  but  goodness  ?  Then  which 
of  your  lord's  bounties  will  ye  twain  deny?  And  beside  these, 

are  gardens  twain,  ....  with  dark  green  foliage In  each 

two  gushing  springs In  each  fruits  and  palms  and  pome- 
granates  In  them  maidens  best  and  fairest!  ....  Bright 

and  large-eyed  maidens  kept  in  their  tents  ....  whom  no  man 
or  jinn  has  deflowered  before  them  ....  reclining  on  cushions 

and  beautiful  carpets Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord 

possessed  of  majesty  and  honor. — Koran,  Sura  Iv,  60-75. 

107.  Arabia,  the  cradle  of  Islam,  is  one  of  the  most 
sterile  portions  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  greatest 
length  of  the  peninsula  is  1,000  miles,  and  its  average 
breadth  is  600  miles.  This  area  consists  of  great 
stretches  of  upland  gravel  on  which  only  hardy  thorn 
bushes  grow,  of  sandy  deserts,  and  of  extensive  tracts 

97 


g8      >    ,      THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  igneous  rock.  A  few  scattered  oases,  produced  by 
isolated  springs,  and  a  comparatively  fertile  strip  along 
the  southern  end  of  the  peninsula  slightly  relieve  its 
sterility. 

From  this  barren  land  from  time  immemorial  Semites 
have  been  pouring  into  other  lands,  carrying  with  them 
the  peculiar  type  of  Semitic  religion  alluded  to  in  chap- 
ter i.  By  the  sixth  century  A.D.  the  old  Semitic  religion 
had  been  in  some  degree  transformed  and  had  lost  some- 
thing of  its  hold  upon  the  people.1  Jews  and  Christian 
ascetics  had  to  some  degree  penetrated  the  peninsula. 
At  Mecca,  the  seat  of  the  powerful  tribe  of  Koreish, 
a  center  to  which  people  from  all  parts  of  the  peninsula 
came  each  year  to  celebrate  a  festival  and  to  trade,  four 
men  had  broken  away  from  heathenism  and  called  them- 
selves "Inquirers."  They  professed  to  be  searching  for 
the  catholic  faith  of  Abraham. 

108.  Mohammed. — It  was  under  these  conditions 
that  Mohammed  was  born  at  Mecca  about  570  A.D. 
Left  an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  he  was  cared  for  first 
by  his  grandfather  and  then  by  an  uncle.  He  appears 
to  have  been  a  quiet  and  an  exemplary  youth,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  two  visits  to  Syria  with  trading  caravans, 
passed  the  first  fifty  years  of  his  life  at  Mecca.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-five  he  married  a  widow,  Khadijah,  who 
bore  him  two  sons  and  four  daughters.  The  sons  died 
hi  infancy,  but  the  daughters  grew  up.  When  about 
forty  years  old  Mohammed  was  agitated  by  grave 

1  For  conditions  in  Arabia  before  Mohammed,  see  W.  R.  Smith, 
Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  2d  ed.  (London,  1903);  G.  A. 
Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins  (New  York,  1902),  chaps,  ii  and 
iii;  and  for  the  peninsula  itself,  S.  M.  Zwemer,  Arabia  the  Cradle  of 
Islam  (NewjYork,  1900). 


MOHAMMEDANISM  99 

doubts  and,  withdrawing  from  the  city,  spent  two  years 
in  a  cave  in  prayer  and  meditation.  He  came  forth 
with  the  conviction  that  God  had  commissioned  him  to 
be  a  prophet  to  his  people,  as  the  Hebrew  prophets  and 
Jesus  had  been  commissioned  to  the  Jews.  He  at  once 
began  to  preach  and  for  ten  years  labored  in  Mecca 
against  great  odds.  Converts  were  never  numerous, 
and  during  the  first  part  of  this  period  they  were  very 
few.  At  one  time  Mohammed  and  his  followers  were 
confined  by  a  ban  to  a  narrow  section  of  the  city  and 
endured  great  hardship.  Under  such  circumstances 
a  little  group  of  believers  were  gathered  about  the 
prophet. 

109.  Doctrines. — The  cardinal  doctrine  of  Moham- 
med was  the  oneness  and  aloneness  of  God,  whom  he 
called  Allah,  "The  God."  The  one  God  was  conceived 
by  him  as  a  great  human  being  or  a  transcendent 
man.  He  had  hands,  eyes,  and  human  attributes. 
He  was  thought  to  be  all-wise  and  all-powerful,  and 
to  be  the  absolute  despot  of  the  world.  It  was  useless 
for  man  to  hope  to  understand  him,  but  God  would 
be  merciful  if  man  submitted  to  him.  Next  hi  impor- 
tance to  the  doctrine  of  God  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
prophetic  function  of  Mohammed.  Through  Moham- 
med, God  made  his  final  revelation;  Mohammed  was 
the  seal  of  the  prophets;  no  prophet  was  to  come  after 
him.  Religion  is  supposed  to  make  a  man  "whole," 
to  give  him  "peace."  The  root  by  which  this  is  ex- 
pressed in  Arabic  is  salama,  the  infinitive  of  the  causa- 
tive stem  of  which,  isldm,  means  "to  submit."  As 
Mohammed  preached  the  doctrine  of  submission  to  God 
he  called  his  religion  Islam. 


ioo  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

To  these  doctrines  Mohammed  added,  from  the 
time  of  his  earliest  ministry,  a  doctrine  of  material 
rewards  and  punishments.  Believers  were  to  be 
rewarded  with  a  material  paradise,  and  unbelievers 
were  to  be  tortured  in  a  very  material  hell.  His  ideas 
on  this  point  are  indicated  in  the  quotations  at  the  head 
of  this  chapter.  The  outward  duties  of  believers  were 
to  pray  five  times  a  day,  as  well  as  to  be  just  and  kind 
to  the  poor.  The  doctrines  of  angels  and  of  Satan  were 
taken  over  from  Judaism,  though  the  figure  of  Satan 
was  blurred  by  conceptions  of  the  jinn  inherited  from 
Arabian  heathenism. 

no.  The  Prophet  at  Medina. — In  the  year  622  the 
Prophet  fled  from  Mecca  and  took  up  his  abode  at 
Medina.1  This  was  accomplished  through  a  secret 
understanding  with  the  men  of  Medina  and  in  spite  of 
the  determination  of  the  men  of  Mecca  to  prevent  it  at 
any  cost.  The  flight  marked  such  an  epoch  in  the  life 
of  Islam  that  Mohammedans  begin  their  era  for  reckon- 
ing tune  from  its  date.  At  Medina,  Mohammed  was 
accepted  by  the  Arabs  as  ruler  of  the  city.  At  Medina, 
Islam  was  transformed  in  many  ways.  Until  Moham- 
med had  resided  in  Medina  for  some  time  he  had  prayed 
with  his  face  toward  Jerusalem.  He  fondly  hoped  that 
the  Jews,  of  whom  there  were  numbers  in  Medina,  would 
accept  him  as  a  successor  of  their  prophets.  When  this 
hope  was  disappointed,  the  Prophet  changed  the  Kibla, 
or  the  direction  of  the  face  in  prayer,  from  Jerusalem  to 
Mecca.  Henceforth  the  ideals  of  Arabian  heathenism 

1  The  real  name  of  the  city  was  Yathrib.  It  was  so  called  when 
Mohammed  moved  thither.  Later  it  was  called  Medinat  un-Nabi, 
"the  city  of  the  Prophet,"  afterward  shortened  to  Medina. 


MOHAMMEDANISM  101 

were  more  influential  in  Islam  than  those  of  Jerusalem 
and  Israel.  At  Medina  the  Prophet,  as  the  head  of  the 
state,  engaged  hi  successful  wars,  in  raids  for  robbery, 
and  not  only  descended  to  trickery  and  violence,  but 
had  revelations  justifying  these  practices.  Islam  was 
no  longer  a  religion  of  moral  suasion;  the  alternative 
became  conversion  or  death. 

Khadijah  had  died  before  Mohammed  left  Mecca, 
and  during  his  career  at  Medina  he  extended,  sometimes 
by  revelation,1  his  marriages  far  beyond  the  number 
four,  which  he  allowed  to  other  believers.  Before  the 
end  of  the  period  Mecca  was  captured  by  him,  and  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  with  the  heathen  ceremonies  in- 
volved in  it,  became  a  part  of  Islam.  The  black  stone 
of  the  Kaaba  thus  became  sacred  to  him  who  abhorred 
idols;  it  became  a  sacred  privilege  to  drink  from  the 
waters  of  the  well  Zemzem  in  Mecca;  and  sacrifice 
became  a  part  of  a  religion  that  recognizes  no  place  for 
atonement.  Before  the  Prophet  died,  in  632  A.D.,  all 
Arabia  had  given,  him  a  nominal  allegiance. 

in.  The  Medina  caliphate  and  the  Koran. — Follow- 
ing the  death  of  Mohammed  a  chief  was  chosen  to 
govern  the  community.  He  was  called  al-khalifa,  "the 
follower"  or  "successor"  of  the  Prophet.  He  did  not, 
like  the  Prophet,  receive  revelations  from  heaven.  He 
was  guided  by  the  prophet's  words  and  by  what  he 
thought  the  Prophet  would  do  if  he  were  alive.  The 
caliphate  of  Medina  lasted  from  632  to  660.  During 
this  tune  the  conquests  of  Islam  were  extended  over 
Palestine,  Egypt,  and  Persia.  The  early  policy,  that 
those  who  would  not  accept  Islam  should  be  put  to  the 

1  See  Sura  xxxiii,  37  ff. 


102  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

sword,  was  modified;  they  were  permitted  to  pay  a 
tax.  This  tax  went  to  swell  the  fortunes  of  the  ruling 
congregation  of  Medina.  During  this  period  the  Koran 
was  compiled  and  its  text  fixed.  In  the  Prophet's 
lifetime  many  of  the  suras  had  been  carried  in  the  mem- 
ory of  his  devout  followers.  Of  some  of  them  notes 
had  been  made  on  bits  of  bone,  leather,  or  palm  leaf. 
In  the  reign  of  Abu-Bekr,  632-34,  these  were  brought 
together  in  a  book.  The  longer  were  placed  first,  and 
the  shorter  after  them.  No  attempt  was  made  to  place 
them  in  chronological  order.  As  most  of  the  longer  ones 
were  uttered  at  Medina,  the  arrangement  brings  the 
greater  number  of  the  later  suras  at  the  beginning  of  the 
book.  In  the  reign  of  Othman,  644-56,  the  text  of 
the  Koran  was  fixed  by  the  addition  of  vowel  points. 
The  book  thus  formed  became,  as  the  Prophet  intended 
it  should,  the  fundamental  religious  and  civil  law  of  the 
Mohammedans.  It  was  believed  to  be  eternal.  Its 
heavenly  counterpart  had  existed  with  God  in  the 
highest  heaven  from  all  eternity.  God  intrusted  copies 
of  it  to  the  angel  Gabriel  and  permitted  him  to  take 
them  to  the  lowest  heaven,  and  to  impart  the  contents 
to  Mohammed  bit  by  bit  as  the  Prophet  needed  it. 
This  revelation  was  thus  held  to  be  fundamental  and 
final.  That  later  parts  sometimes  contradicted  earlier 
parts  did  not  seriously  trouble  the  early  generations  of 
Islam. 

In  656  Ali,  the  Prophet's  cousin  and  son-in-law,  was 
chosen  caliph.  The  Prophet  had  expressed  the  wish 
that  Ali  succeed  him,  and  many  thought  that  he  should 
have  been  chosen  when  the  Prophet  died.  At  this 
juncture  Muawia,  a  descendant  of  Omeyya,  a  cousin  of 


MOHAMMEDANISM  103 

Mohammed's  grandfather,  revolted.  Before  his  revolt 
Muawia  had  been  governor  of  Damascus  for  several 
years,  and  pushed  his  revolt  from  that  vantage-ground. 
The  whole  of  Ali's  caliphate  was  occupied  with  the  civil 
war  thus  precipitated.  Finally  in  660  Ali  was  assassi- 
nated and  Muawia  triumphed. 

112.  The  Damascus  caliphate. — Muawia  established 
the  Omayyad  caliphate  of  Damascus  upon  the  ruins 
of  the  caliphate  of  Medina.     His  family,  though  kins- 
men, of  Mohammed,  had  clung  to  their  heathenism  as 
long  as  they  could.     During  the  Prophet's  ministry  at 
Mecca  and  most  of  his  residence  at  Medina  they  had 
been  among  his  most  bitter  enemies.     Muawia  changed 
the  character  of  the  caliphate.    At  Medina  it  had  been  an 
elective  office;  at  Damascus  it  became  hereditary  in  the 
Omayyad  Dynasty.    Heathen  at  heart,  possessing  only 
a  veneering  of  Islamism,  these  successors  of  the  Prophet 
secularized    the    Mohammedan    organization.     During 
theu*  ninety  years  of  rule  (660-750  A.D.)  Moslems  con- 
quered the  rest  of  North  Africa  and  the  southwestern 
half  of  Spam;  they  surged  into  France  and  were  turned 
back  by  Charles  Martel  at  the  battle  of  Tours.     The 
armies  of  this  caliphate  also  carried  the  conquests  east- 
ward to  the  borders  of  India  and  into  Turkestan  and 
Samarcand  beyond  the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes  rivers. 

During  this  caliphate  Mohammedans  came  into 
contact  with  the  literature  and  learning  of  the  Greeks, 
which  had  been  cherished  in  the  monasteries  of  Syria. 

113.  Abbasside  and  Spanish  caliphates. — In  750  A.D. 
the  house  of  Omayya  was  overthrown  by  Abul-Abbas, 
a   descendant    of    Abbas,    an    uncle    of    Mohammed, 
who  established  the  Abbasside  caliphate.    The  caliphs  of 


104  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

this  line  also  formed  a  dynasty.  The  success  of  Abul- 
Abbas  forever  divided  politically  the  Moslem  world, 
for  North  Africa  and  Spain  never  accepted  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  Abbassides.  Abd-er-Rahman,  a  scion  of 
the  Omayyad  house,  escaped  the  slaughter  visited  upon 
his  kinsmen  and  fled  to  Spain,  where  he  became  ruler. 
His  descendants  established  the  Spanish  caliphate, 
which  continued  until  1027  A.D.  The  second  of  the 
Abbasside  caliphs  founded  the  city  of  Bagdad  as  a  capital 
city.  Under  the  caliphs  of  both  Bagdad  and  Cordova 
literature  and  philosophy  flourished  and  the  brilliant 
period  of  Moslem  intellectual  life  began.  The  Koran 
is  everywhere  anthropomorphic  in  its  conception  of 
God.  It  insists  on  the  eternity  of  the  unrevealed 
exemplar  of  itself.  The  study  of  philosophy  led  in 
many  quarters  to  pronounced  skepticism  on  these  points. 
Even  Mamun,  caliph  of  Bagdad,  813-33  A.D.,  became 
a  philosophical  skeptic  much  to  the  horror  of  most  of 
the  Moslem  world.  These  skeptics  were  often  called 
Mutazilites,  or  Seceders. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  the  Bagdad 
caliphs  lost  their  political  power.  Their  empire  had 
gradually  broken  up,  dissolving  into  a  number  of  petty 
political  states  which  have  changed  many  times  in  the 
lapse  of  centuries.  The  Abbasside  caliphs  continued 
to  be  the  religious  heads  of  Mohammedanism,  except 
that  in  Spain  and  North  Africa  their  authority  was  not 
acknowledged  until  after  the  fall,  in  1171,  of  the  Fati- 
mite  caliphate.  This  caliphate  had  arisen  at  Kairwan 
in  North  Africa  in  909  and  conquered  Egypt  in  968. 
The  Abbasside  caliphs  continued  to  reside  at  Bagdad 
until  1258  A.D.,  when  they  removed  to  Cairo.  When 


MOHAMMEDANISM  105 

Egypt  was  conquered  by  the  Ottoman  Turks  in 
1517  A.D.,  the  last  of  the  Abbasside  line  sold  the 
office  of  caliph  to  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  who,  since  that 
time,  has  been  regarded  as  the  successor  of  the  Prophet. 

114.  Missionary   efforts. — Throughout    its    history 
Islam  has  aimed  at  making  converts.    In  the  course  of 
the  centuries  it  has  penetrated  India,  China,  Africa, 
and  the  isles  of  the  Pacific,  and  has  made  many  converts. 
As  it  had  its  birth  in  a  crude  civilization  and  is  in  its 
original  form  a  peculiarly  objective  faith,  it  is  well 
adapted  to  the  intelligence  of  the  half-savage  tribes  of 
Africa  and  other  backward  lands.     It  is  estimated  that 
at  present  there  are  about  240,000,000  Mohammedans 
in  the  world.    If  this  is  true,  they  constitute  nearly 
one-sixth  of  the  population  of  the  globe. 

115.  The    development    of    Mohammedan    law. — 
Mohammed  regarded  the  Koran  as  God's  revealed  law 
for  both  sacred  and  secular  things.     In  his  legal  deci- 
sions at  Medina  he  sometimes  followed  Arabian  tribal 
custom  and  sometimes  the  precedents  of.  Jewish  law. 
Where  these  failed  him,  he  usually  received  a  special 
revelation  which  was  believed  to  disclose  the  divine  will 
with  reference  to  the  matter  in  hand.     Upon  his  death 
the  revelations  ceased;    nevertheless,  novel  situations 
were  continually  rising.    His  successors  had  little  diffi- 
culty in  cases  to  which  the  words  of  the  Koran  were 
applicable,  -  or  in  cases  analogous  to  those  that  the 
Prophet  had  decided.     In  other  cases  they  had  recourse 
to  tradition.    "The  Companions  of  the  Prophet,"  as 
those  who  had  come  in  contact  with  him  as  faithful 
believers  were  afterward  called,  would,  in  such  emer- 
gencies, recall  that  on  such  and  such  an  occasion  the 


106  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Prophet  had  said  or  done  so  and  so.  After  the  death 
of  the  Companions,  the  memories  of  those  who  had 
known  the  Companions  were  drawn  upon.  They  would 
say  that  they  had  heard  so  and  so  say  that  on  such  and 
such  an  occasion  the  Prophet  said  or  did  thus  and  so. 
And  so  the  process  went  on.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
the  Companions  and  their  successors  often  drew  upon 
their  imaginations,  so  that  in  tune  the  body  of  traditions 
grew  to  enormous  proportions,  containing  many  items 
that  were  fictitious.  Al-Bokhari,  who  died  in  870  A.D., 
collected  and  sifted  the  traditions  in  his  Sahih.  He 
rejected  many,  but  his  collection  contained  about 
seven  thousand  traditions.  Other  collections  were 
made,  but  that  of  Al-Bokhari,  who  possessed  great 
critical  insight,  is  the  best.  Simple  tradition  did  not, 
however,  always  suffice.  In  Syria  and  other  territories 
conquered  from  Byzantium,  Moslem  courts  had  taken 
over  precedents  and  principles  from  the  Roman  courts 
that  they  found  established  there.  It  accordingly 
became  necessary  to  justify  the  actual  practice  of 
Mohammedan  tribunals  from  the  Moslem  point  of  view. 
The  conditions  varied  in  different  parts  of  Islam.  In 
applying  the  traditions  to  these  conditions  four  schools 
of  law  were  developed: 

(i)  The  earliest  was  that  of  Malik  ibn  Anas,  a  lawyer 
of  Medina,  who  died  in  796  A.D.  Malik  lived  in  the 
city  of  the  Prophet,  and  sought  to  build  up  a  body  of 
jurisprudence  on  the  basis  of  the  precedents  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  Prophet.  He  represents  a  reaction  from 
Abu  Hanifa,  and  is  the  exponent  of  law  based  on 
tradition  only.  He  was  not  careful  as  to  the  cor- 
rectness of  a  tradition,  but  only  of  its  value  in 


MOHAMMEDANISM  107 

legal  practice.    His  system  is  still  followed  in  North 
Africa. 

(2)  A  second  school  was  that  of  Abu  Hanifa,  a  resi- 
dent of  Kufa,  a  man  of  Persian  birth,  who  died  in  767  A.D. 
He   was    a   lecturer    on    law — a    speculative    lawyer, 
rather  than  a  practical  jurist.    He  depended  very  little 
on  the  traditions,  preferring  to  go  directly  to  the  text 
of  the  Koran.    As  this  was  in  most  cases  inapplicable, 
he  introduced  the  rule  of  analogy,  which  was  practically 
identical  with  legal  fiction.     Even  analogy  he  modified 
by  what  he  called  "holding  for  the  better."    Admitting 
that  analogy  pointed  to  such  and  such  a  rule,  he  would 
say,  "Under  the  circumstances  I  hold  it  better  to  rule 
thus  and  thus."    He  thus  made  Moslem  law  so  flexible 
that  regulations  made  for  the  desert  need  not  ruin 
city  life.    The  Ottoman  Empire  and  Orthodox  India 
still  follow  his  legal  principles. 

(3)  A   third  school  of  law  was  founded  by  Ash- 
Shafi'i,  who  resided  at  times  in  Arabia  and  at  times  in 
Egypt,  and  who  died  in  820  A.D.    In  addition  to  the 
Koran   and  tradition,  both  of  which  he  regarded  as 
inspired,  he  introduced  the  principle  of  agreement.    If, 
for  example,  Moslem  communities  were  found  to  follow 
customs  for  which  there  was  no  authority  in  the  Koran 
or  traditions,  it  was  assumed  that  the  Moslem  commu- 
nities had  agreed  that  such  practices  were  right.    As 
the  first  caliphs  had  attached  weight  to  the  agreement 
of  the  Companions  of  the  Prophet,  so  Ash-Shafi'i  made 
the  agreement  of  Mohammedan  communities  a  source 
of  authority.    Ash-Shafi'i  also  held  that  in  drawing  an 
analogy  between  a  rule  of  the  Koran  and  any  particular 
case  the  reason  lying  behind  the  Koranic  rule  should  be 


io8  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

taken  into  account.  On  the  principles  of  Ash-Shan' i 
any  law  or  custom  could  be  adopted  and  naturalized  in 
Mohammedan  law.  The  jurists  of  the  Dutch  protec- 
torates still  follow  the  principles  of  Ash-Shafi'i. 

(4)  A  fourth  school  was  formed  by  the  disciples  of 
Ahmad  ibn  Hanbal  of  Bagdad,  who  died  in  855  A.D. 
He  was  a  resident  of  Bagdad,  who  revolted  against  the 
rationalism  of  the  ninth-century  caliphs  there.  He 
swerved  to  literal  traditionalism,  suffered  severe  perse- 
cution, and  was  regarded  by  his  disciples  as  a  saint.  He 
developed  Moslem  law  in  no  way,  his  influence  being 
wholly  reactionary.  His  followers  in  modern  Islam  are 
few  and  are  found  chiefly  in  Arabia. 

116.  Sects. — Mohammedan  sects  are  almost  as 
numerous  and  varied  as  the  sects  of  the  Christian 
church.  Attention  can  be  given  here  only  to  the 
most  important.  The  Karejites  (Khawagri},'or  "Come- 
outers,"  were  a  group  that  grew  up  in  the  early  days  of 
Islam.  They  were  radical  reformers,  and  sought  to 
establish  a  theocracy,  urging  that  a  pious  man  of  what- 
ever tribe  or  nation  might  be  called  to  the  caliphate. 
They,  too,  afterward  broke  up  into  many  minor  sects. 
The  greatest  cleavage  in  Islam  is,  however,  that  between 
the  Shiites  and  Sunnites. 

(i)  The  Shiites  had  their  origin  at  the  end  of  the 
caliphate  of  Medina  and  were  the  outgrowth  of  a  group 
that  had  been  discontented  ever  since  the  Prophet's 
death.  This  group  had  held  that  the  first  three  caliphs 
were  interlopers;  that  the  Prophet  desired  Ali,  the  hus- 
band of  Fatima,  to  be  his  successor.  When  Ah*  became 
caliph  after  the  assassination  of  Othman,  Muawia 
resisted  him,  professing  to  be  an  avenger  of  the  murdered 


MOHAMMEDANISM  109 

Othman.  Ali  fought  him  for  a  time,  but  was  finally 
persuaded  to  refer  the  dispute  to  arbitration.  The 
decision  went  against  Ali,  and  the  Karejites  were  so 
disgusted  with  him  that  one  of  them  assassinated  him. 
His  eldest  son  Hasan  was  regarded  for  a  time  by  a 
small  coterie  as  caliph,  but  was  poisoned  in  669.  His 
other  son,  Hosein,  eleven  years  later  headed  an  insur- 
rection against  the  Omayyad  caliph  Yezid  and  was 
killed  in  battle.  The  slaughter  of  Ali  and  his  sons, 
descendants  of  the  Prophet,  at  the  hands  of  Moslems 
seemed  to  the  Shiites  the  greatest  outrage.  The 
Shiites  were  at  first  largely  of  the  Persian  race,  and 
the  Persians  are  still  Shiites.  Of  Aryan  stock,  they 
believe  more  easily  than  the  Semites  hi  incarnations. 
The  tragic  deaths  of  Ali  and  his  sons  led  them  to  regard 
these  heroes  as  almost  divine.  Their  tombs  are  to  this 
day  sacred  shrines  to  the  Shiite  sects,  and  passion-plays 
still  keep  alive  the  memory  of  their  sufferings.  Among 
all  the  Shiites,  Ali  is  regarded  as  an  incomparable 
warrior,  concerning  whose  prowess  the  most  extraor- 
dinary legends  are  told.  They  regard  him  also  as  a 
saint  whose  miracles  equal  those  of  the  prophets.  In 
contrast  with  the  Shiites  are  the  Sunnites,  or  tradi- 
tionalists, or  those  who  follow  the  ordinary  traditions 
of  Islam  and  who  recognize  the  legitimacy  of  the  first 
four  caliphs.  The  Turks  are  Sunnites.  The  Shiites 
have  broken  up  into  many  sects,  among  whom  the 
Nusari  and  the  Ali-ilahi  believe  Ah'  to  be  an  incarnation 
of  God.  The  Nusari  believe  him  to  be  the  first  of  the 
three  persons  of  the  Trinity.  The  Shiites  have  a  tend- 
ency to  adopt  Aryan  types  of  mysticism,  which  some- 
times strain  their  monotheism  almost  to  the  breaking 


no  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

point.  According  to  the  more  general  Shiite  view  Ali 
and  his  two  sons  were  imams,  or  divinely  appointed 
leaders,  who  were  succeeded  for  a  time  by  other  imams. 
Some  of  the  sects  regard  the  imams  as  Nuqat,  or  "Points" 
of  divine  manifestation.  Some  Shiites  hold  that  there 
were  seven  imams,  others  twelve.  Both  agree  that  the 
last  imam  did  not  die,  but  is  concealed,  awaiting  the 
proper  time  for  his  full  manifestation. 

(2)  The  Ismailites,  or  "Seveners,"  were  a  Persian 
sect  of  Shiites,  who  believed  that  Ismail,  who  had  been 
adopted  by  Abd-Allah  ibn  Maimun,  the  sixth  imam, 
upon  the  death  of  the  latter  in  766  A.D.  became  the 
seventh  and  last  imam.    They  believed  in  reality  in  a 
system  of  incarnations  by  sevens.    In  this  system  Ismail 
was  the  forty-ninth  incarnation. 

(3)  The  Druses. — In  the  eleventh  century  Darazi, 
an  Ismailian,  went  to  Egypt  and  persuaded  the  Fatimite 
caliph  Hakim  that  the  caliph  as  a  descendant  of  Ali  was 
an  incarnation  of   God.    After  the  disappearance  of 
Hakim,  who  appears  to  have  been  insane,  Darazi  went 
to  Syria  and  taught.    He  was  opposed  hi  some  tenets 
by  one  Hamzah,  whose  opinions  finally  prevailed  among 
the  followers  of  Darazi.     It  thus  happens  that  Darazi 
is  counted  a  heretic  by  the  sect  which  bears  his  name. 
This  sect  is  now  known  as  the  Druses  and  is  quite 
numerous  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Lebanon  Moun- 
tains and  in  the  Hauran  to  the  east  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee. 

(4)  The  Assassins  is  a  name  given  by  Europeans  to 
another  of  the  Ismailian  sects.    This  sect  made  much 
of  the  doctrine  of  imams.    It  spread  to  Syria  in  the  time 
of  the  Crusaders,  and  its  leader,  Rashid  ed-Din  Sinan, 
"the  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain,"  who  claimed  to  be 


MOHAMMEDANISM  ill 

not  only  an  imam  but  an  incarnation  of  Deity,  was  for 
many  years  the  terror  of  the  Lebanon.  The  Assassins, 
with  many  other  Ismailians,  held  to  the  "inner  meaning" 
of  the  Koran  rather  than  to  its  outward  form,  and  could 
thus  set  aside  its  obvious  precepts.  A  band  of  disciples 
was  ever  ready  to  assassinate  those  marked  out  by  the 
head  of  the  order  for  death. 

(5)  Babism  and  Bahaism. — On  May  23,  1844,  Mirza 
Ali  Mohammed,  a  merchant  of  Shiraz  in  Persia,  an- 
nounced that  he  was  the  Bab,  or  gate  through  which 
men  might  hold  communion  with  the  concealed  imam. 
Later  he  declared  himself  to  be  an  incarnation  of  God. 
The  claim  was  admitted  by  a  number  of  enthusiastic 
followers,  some  of  whom  suffered  martyrdom  for  the 
belief.  The  Bab  was  martyred  at  Tabriz,  July  9,  1850. 
Bahaullah,  one  of  the  Bab's  followers,  proclaimed  him- 
self in  1866-67  "He  whom  God  manifests."  He  claimed 
that  the  Bab  had  foretold  his  coming,  being  simply  his 
forerunner.  The  followers  of  Bahaullah  are  called 
Bahis.  After  the  Bab  was  put  to  death  his  followers 
fled  to  Bagdad,  whence  some  years  later  the  Turkish 
government  removed  them  to  Adrianople.  It  was  here 
that  Bahaullah  proclaimed  himself — an  act  which  caused 
schism  and  bloodshed  among  the  Babists.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  the  Bahaites  were  removed  to  Akka  in 
Palestine,  and  the  Babists  to  Cyprus.  The  Babists 
soon  dwindled  hi  numbers  and  influence,  while  the 
Bahaites  have  increased  in  importance,  and  have  carried 
on  a  somewhat  successful  propaganda  in  the  United 
States. 

117.  Scholastic  theologians. — As  Moslems  imbibed 
the  principles  of  Greek  philosophy,  there  were  a  number 


112  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

who  began  to  apply  these  principles  to  the  Koran 
and  the  articles  of  the  Moslem  faith.  They  were 
called  Mutazilites,  or  Seceders,  and  were  numerous  and 
popular  among  the  Shiites.  The  first  of  a  long  line  of 
scholastic  theologians  who  opposed  the  Mutazilites  and 
endeavored  to  justify  the  tenets  of  Islam  by  the  use  of 
reason  was  Al-Ashari,  who  died  in  933.  He  was  of 
Arab  stock,  but,  according  to  tradition,  brought  up  by 
a  Mutazilite  stepfather.  He  was  himself  a  Mutazilite 
until  he  was  forty  years  of  age,  when  he  underwent  a 
conversion  to  orthodox  views.  His  conversion  has  given 
rise  to  several  legends.  He  devoted  the 'rest  of  his  life 
to  the  defense  of  the  Koran  and  the  traditions — a  task 
for  which  his  previous  education  peculiarly  fitted  him. 
No  one  with  sufficient  intellectual  equipment  had  before 
undertaken  it.  He  handled  the  questions  with  great 
acuteness,  and  in  one  respect  (the  definition  of  what 
a  thing  is)  he  anticipated  Kant. 

The  greatest  of  all  the  Mohammedan  theologians  was, 
however,  Al-Ghazali,  who  was  born  in  1059  and  died  in 
1109.  He  was  the  St.  Augustine  of  Islam.  He  com- 
bined great  philosophical  ability  with  a  profound  type  of 
mystical  piety.  During  his  earlier  years  he  was  a  pupil 
of  Mutazilite  teachers,  and  at  one  time  became  a 
thorough  skeptic.  After  this  he  experienced  a  con- 
version so  remarkable  that  it  is  quoted  by  William 
James  hi  his  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience.  During 
his  closing  years  he  was  a  Sufi  or  mystic,  as  well  as  a 
defender  of  the  faith.  There  was  a  tenderness  and  charity 
about  all  his  judgments  of  others  that  is  very  winning. 

In  philosophy  Al-Ghazali,  like  Hume,  was  a  thorough 
skeptic.  He  held  that  we  can  know  the  cause  of  nothing. 


MOHAMMEDANISM  113 

We  only  know  that  events  succeed  one  another;  whether 
one  is  caused  by  the  other  is  a  matter  beyond  our  ken. 
All  our  knowledge  is  due  to  revelation,  whether  in  the 
religious  or  in  the  scientific  sphere.  According  to  him 
existence  has  three  modes.  The  first  is  the  world  that 
is  apparent  to  the  senses;  it  exists  by  the  power  of 
God  and  is  in  constant  change.  Then  there  is  the 
unseen,  eternal  universe  that  exists  by  God's  eternal 
decree,  without  development  and  without  change. 
Between  these  is  an  intermediate  universe,  which  seems 
externally  to  belong  to  the  first,  but  in  respect  of  the 
power  of  God  really  belongs  to  the  second.  Al-Ghazali 
refused  to  allegorize  the  Koran,  but,  holding  that  angels, 
the  Koran,  Islam,  and  Friday  are  not  corporeal  realities, 
but  actual  existences  in  the  unseen,  eternal  universe, 
he  avoided  the  crass  concreteness  of  much  of  Moslem 
thought.  In  dogmatic  theology  Al-Ghazali  resembled 
Albrecht  Ritschl.  He  rejected  metaphysics  and  opposed 
the  influence  of  any  philosophical  system  on  his  theology. 
Theology  must  be  based  on  religious  phenomena,  simply 
accepted  and  correlated.  Like  Ritschl,  he  laid  stress 
on  the  value  for  us  of  a  piece  of  knowledge.  Al-Ghazali  led 
Islam  back  to  reality  in  religion.  He  would  have  been 
called  in  Christianity  a  biblical  theologian.  He  combined 
with  his  genuine  attachment  to  the  Koran  and  traditions 
a  genuine  piety  and  religious  experience.1  He  is  probably 
the  most  influential  figure  in  Islam  after  Mohammed. 
118.  Modern  reactionary  sects. — Arabia,  always 
largely  untouched  by  outside  influences,  produced  in  the 

1  This  statement  of  Al-Ghazali's  thought  is  based  on  D.  B.  Mac- 
donald's  "Life  of  Al-Ghazali,"  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society, 
XX,  71-132. 


114  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

eighteenth  century  in  the  person  of  Abd-al-Wahab,  a 
native  of  the  Negd,  who  died  hi  1787,  a  reactionary 
reformer.  It  was  his  aim  to  restore  Islam  to  its  primi- 
tive purity,  and  to  lop  off  all  later  accretions.  He  was 
the  founder  of  the  Wahabites,  who  take  the  Koran 
literally,  and  follow  the  legal  maxims  of  Ibn  Hanbal. 
The  movement  soon  produced  a  dynasty  that  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century  ruled  all  of  Arabia.  The  political 
power  has  vanished  and  Wahabism  has  become,  as  at 
the  first,  a  religious  sect.  It  doubtless  had  some  influ- 
ence upon  Mohammed  ibn  Ali  as-Sanusi,  who  in  1837 
founded  the  Brotherhood  of  as-Sanusi  for  the  purpose 
of  reforming  and  spreading  the  Mohammedan  faith. 

119.  The  mystics. — The  unseen  world  has  always 
been  very  real  to  Mohammedans  and  has  always  seemed 
very  near.  From  the  earliest  times  there  has  been  an 
element  hi  Islam  which  was  repelled  by  traditional 
teaching  and  intellectual  reasoning.  Such  persons  often 
became  ascetics,  and  sought  by  mortifying  the  flesh  to 
commune  with  God  through  direct  vision.  Such  persons 
are  called  Sufis,  from  sufi,  "wool,"  because  in  the  early 
days  they  wore  rough  woolen  garments.  The  tendency 
to  asceticism  has  led  to  the  organization  of  numerous 
religious  orders  and  to  a  great  variety  of  types  of  thought. 
The  orders  are  often  called  "dervishes,"  from  a  Persian 
word  meaning  "seeking  doors."  The  term  is  now  not 
restricted  to  mendicant  orders.  Some  of  the  mystics 
came  under  the  influence  of  Greek  mystical  writings, 
and  are  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  pantheists. 
Others,  like  the  Christian  Gnostics,  exalt  knowledge. 
Others  simply  accept  God's  immanence  in  the  world  and 
exalt  the  life  in  God.  Ascetic  and  mystic  sects  have 


MOHAMMEDANISM  115 

flourished  among  the  Berbers  of  North  Africa.  One  of 
these,  the  Al-Morabits  (Almoravides),  or  "Monastics," 
established  a  dynasty  which  conquered  Spain  in  1087, 
and  was  overthrown  by  the  Al-Mohads,  a  dynasty 
founded  by  another  fanatical  Berber  sect.  The  Mohads 
were  founded  by  Ibn  Tumart,  a  pupil  of  Al-Ghazali, 
who  emphasized  the  unity,  tawhid,  of  God.  Tawhid, 
however,  as  he  employed  it,  stood  for  the  spirituality 
of  God. 

While  often  leading  to  political  consequences,  asceti- 
cism and  mysticism  have  opened  the  way  in  Islam  to  the 
religious  life  as  a  vocation  for  both  men  and  women. 
While  much  that  is  bizarre  and  fanatical,  and  even 
demoralizing,  has  found  expression  in  these  orders,  they 
have  helped  to  keep  the  religious  life  of  Islam  in  touch 
with  reality,  and  have  been  one  of  the  means  of  so  diver- 
sifying Islam  that  it  could  meet  a  great  variety  of 
religious  needs. 

120.  Estimate  of  Islam. — Mohammedanism  began 
as  the  religion  of  a  semibarbarous  people.  Though  a 
great  advance  upon  the  Arabian  heathenism  which  it 
displaced,  it  appeals,  in  its  primitive  form,  essentially 
to  backward  peoples.  Though  Mohammed  endeavored 
so  to  fetter  it  that  progress  would  be  impossible,  the 
genius  of  the  best  Mohammedan  thinkers  has  been  able 
to  find  avenues  of  expansion  and  to  make  Islam  a  fairly 
exalted  religion.  The  varieties  of  Islamic  thought  rival 
those  of  Christianity,  and  the  number  of  its  mystical 
sects  surpasses  that  of  Christianity.  Much  must  be 
conceded  to  a  religious  system  that  commands  the  devo- 
tion of  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  population  of  the  globe, 
even  if  it  must  be  recognized  that  it  is  not  the  natural 


n6  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

instrument  for  the  expression  of  the  religious  feeling  of 
the  most  refined. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  107:  cf.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  Arabia  the  Cradle  of  Islam  (New 
York  and  Chicago,  1900),  chaps,  i  and  ii. 

On  sees.  108-10:  cf.  Sir  William  Muir,  Mahomet  and  Islam 
(London,  1895);  or  A.  Gilman,  The  Saracens  (New  York 
and  London,  1887),  chaps,  iv-xxii. 

On  sees.  111-13:  A.  Gilman,  The  Saracens  (New  York  and 
London,  1887),  chaps,  xxiii-xli;  S.  Lane-Poole,  The  Moors 
in  Spain  (New  York  and  London,  1891);  or  Ameer  All, 
A  Short  History  of  the  Saracens  (London,  1899). 

On  sec.  114:  cf.  D.  B.  Macdonald,  Aspects  of  Islam  (New  York, 
1911),  chap.  viii. 

On  sec.  115:  cf.  D.  B.  Macdonald,  Muslim  Theology,  Juris- 
prudence, and  Constitutional  Theory  (New  York,  1903), 
pp.  65-118. 

On  sees.  116,  118:  cf.  D.  S.  Margoliouth,  Mohammedanism 
(London),  chap,  v,  and  "Assassins,"  "Babis  and  Bahais," 
and  "Druses,"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics;  or  I.  Goldziber,  Mohammed  and  Islam  (New  Haven, 
1917),  chap.  v. 

On  sec.  117:  cf.  D.  B.  Macdonald,  Muslim  Theology,  Juris- 
prudence, and  Constitutional  Theory  (New  York,  1903), 
pp.  186-242. 

On  sec.  119:  cf.  R.  A.  Nicholson,  The  Mystics  of  Islam  (London, 
1914);  or  D.  B.  Macdonald,  Religious  Attitude  and  Life  in 
Islam  (Chicago,  1909),  Lectures  VI,  VII;  or  D.  B.  Mac- 
donald, Aspects  of  Islam  (New  York,  1911),  Lectures  V,  VI. 

CLASS  B 

D.  S.  Margoliouth,  Mohammedanism  in  the  "Home  University 
Library." 


CHAPTER  VH 

ZOROASTRIANISM 

0  Ahura  Mazdah,  most  beneficent  Spirit,  Maker  of  the  material 
world,  thou  Holy  One! — Vendidad  ii,  i. 

1  conceived  of  thee,  0  Mazdah,  in  my  thought  that  thou,  the 
First,  art  also  the  Last — that  thou  art  Father  of  Good  Thought, 
for  thus  I  apprehended  thee  with  mine  eye — that  thou  didst  truly 
create  Right,  and  art  Lord  to  judge  the  actions  of  life — Yasna 
xxxi,  8. 

I  will  speak  of  the  Spirits  twain  at  the  first  beginning  of  the 
world,  of  whom  the  holier  thus  spake  to  the  enemy:  Neither 
thought  nor  teachings  nor  wills  nor  beliefs  nor  words  nor  deeds 
nor  selves  nor  souls  of  us  twain  agree. — Yasna  xlv,  2. 

All  the  pleasures  of  life  which  thou  holdest,  those  that  were, 
that  are,  and  that  shall  be,  O  Mazdah,  according  to  thy  good  will 
apportion  them.  Through  Good  Thought  advance  thou  the 
body,  through  Dominion  and  Right  at  will. — Yasna  xxxiii,  10. 

It  is  they,  the  liars,  who  destroy  life,  who  are  mightily  deter- 
mined to  deprive  matron  and  master  of  the  enjoyment  of  their 
heritage,  in  that  they  would  pervert  the  righteous,  0  Mazdah, 
from  the  Best  Thought. — Yasna  xxxii,  n. 

In  immortality  shall  the  soul  of  the  righteous  be  joyful,  hi 
perpetuity  shall  the  torments  of  the  liars.  All  this  doth  Mazdah 
Ahura  appoint  by  his  Dominion. — Yasna  xlv,  7. 

121.  Persia  is  geographically  a  great  tableland  or 
plateau.  This  was  called  Iran  and  extends  beyond  the 
borders  of  modern  Persia  into  Afghanistan  on  the  east. 
The  area  of  this  elevated  region  is  nearly  one-fifth  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  Mountains  bound  it  on 
nearly  every  side,  opening  only  through  rocky  passes. 

117 


n8  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Frequently  they  stretch  far  into  the  interior.  While 
parts  of  this  tableland  are  well  watered,  it  has  no  rivers 
worthy  of  the  name.  Most  streams  are  absorbed  by 
the  soil  before  they  reach  an  outlet.  In  many  portions 
of  the  land  irrigation  is  a  necessity,  if  crops  are  to  be 
wrung  from  the  arid  wastes.  Nevertheless  the  soil 
responds  readily  to  tillage.  It  is  natural  that  in  such  a 
country  irrigation  should  become  synonymous  with 
righteousness,  as  it  was  in  the  Zoroastrian  religion, 
and  that  agriculture  should  be  regarded  as  a  religious 
duty.1 

122.  The  people  of  Iran,  as  we  know  them  in  history, 
belonged  to  the  Aryan  branch  of  the  Indo-European  stock. 
At  some  remote  period  their  ancestors  had  lived  on  the 
great  plain  to  the  north  of  the  Hindu  Kush  Mountains 
side  by  side  with  the  ancestors  of  the  Aryans  of  India. 
At  what  date  they  migrated  into  Parthia,  Media, 
Persia,  etc.,  we  cannot  now  determine.  Aryan  names 
are  found  among  the  Mitanni  of  the  upper  Euphrates 
Valley  and  among  the  Hittites  of  Boghaz  Kui  about 
1400-1300  B.C.  Among  the  Mitanni  the  names  of  Mitra, 
Indra,  and  Varuna,  Aryan  gods,  are  found  during  the 
same  period.2  It  seems  probable  that  the  Mitannians 
and  Hittites  were  a  mixture  of  races,  but  the  presence 
of  these  gods,  which  appear  also  in  India,  prove  that 
there  were  Aryans  among  them.  Whether  the  migra- 
tion of  Aryans  into  India  and  Persia  occurred  before  or 
after  1400  B.C.  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  determine. 

1  Compare  A.  V.  W.  Jackson,  Persia,  Past  and  Present  (New  York, 
1906),  pp.  23  f. 

•See  Winckler,  Mittcilungen  der  deutschen  Orient-Gesettschaft, 
No.  35  (1907),  p.  Si- 


ZOROASTRIANISM  119 

The  most  that  we  can  say  is  that  the  Medes  were  in  the 
region  of  Media  in  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  for  in  the 
year  836  B.C.  Shalmaneser  III  of  Assyria  invaded  their 
land.1  It  seems  probable  that  by  this  tune  the  Aryan 
stock  had  penetrated  those  parts  of  Iran  in  which  we 
find  them  in  later  times. 

The  struggle  with  nature  in  this  elevated  tableland 
produced  an  efficient,  practical  people,  not  unlike  the 
ancient  Romans  in  their  general  characteristics.  Their 
kinsmen  of  India  became  in  the  milder  Indian  climate 
contemplative,  speculative,  mystical.  The  Persians 
remained  to  the  end  active  and  alert,  more  deeply 
interested  in  objective  realities  than  in  metaphysical 
speculations.  On  this  account  the  religion  of  Zoroaster 
was  very  different  from  the  religions  of  India. 

123.  The  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  the  religion  of 
Zoroaster  are  extant  portions  of  the  Avesta,2  collected 
probably  in  the  last  period  of  the  Achaemenian  Dynasty 
after  400  B.C.,  and  the  Pahlavi- texts,  the  most  important 
of  which  is  the  Bundahishn.  These  were  collected  during 
the  Sasanian  Dynasty  (220-641  A.D.)  and  the  centuries 
immediately  following,  having  been  edited  not  later  than 
881  A.D.  The  Pahlavi  writings  bear  about  the  same 
relation  to  the  Avesta  that  the  Talmud  does  to  the  Old 
Testament,  or  the  patristic  writings  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, though  the  analogy  is  not  quite  complete,  since  it 
is  probable  that  in  parts  of  the  Bundahishn  lost  portions 
of  the  Avesta  are  reproduced  in  a  late  form.  The 
Avesta  consists  of  three  parts,  the  Vendidad,  the  Yashts, 

1  See  Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  I,  143. 
"The  etymology  of  the  name  Avesta,  despite  proposed  explanations 
such  as  "knowledge,"  or  again  "text,"  or  the  like,  remains  uncertain. 


120  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  the  Yasna.  These  are  not  all  of  the  same  age. 
The  oldest  portion  is  Yasna  xxviii-liii,  hymns  that  are 
called  Gathas,  written  in  a  very  old  dialect.  It  is 
generally  agreed  that  these  are  as  old  as  Zoroaster 
himself,  and  contain,  besides  his  own  words,  as  sage, 
seer,  and  religious  teacher,  our  most  authentic  informa- 
tion about  the  prophet. 

These  seventeen  psalms  form  an  especially  sacred  part 
of  the  Avesta.  They  are  called  "holy"  in  the  later 
texts.  Like  the  Hebrew  Psalms,  they  are  collected  into 
five  groups  named  the  "Five  Gathas."  Throughout 
them  runs  the  tone  of  a  prophet  proclaiming  a  faith  not 
known  before. 

The  other  parts  of  the  Avesta  contain  material  that 
is  undoubtedly  old,  though  later  in  form  of  redaction. 
The  Visperad  and  the  liturgical  Yasna,  which  contains 
litanies  for  the  sacrifice,  may  be  later  than  the  Gathas, 
but  in  the  Yashts  there  is  much  that  dates  back  to 
antique  times.  It  is  in  a  measure  pre-Zoroastrian. 

The  Yashts  are  poetic  expressions  of  the  mythology 
and  historical  legends  of  ancient  Iran,  and  represent,  it 
has  been  conjectured,  the  popular  religious  beliefs  which 
the  prophet  opposed,  but  was  unable  to  suppress,  and 
which,  after  his  death,  found  a  place  among  the  sacred 
writings.1  The  Vendidad  is  a  compilation  of  ritual  laws 
and  of  mythical  tales  possibly  of  non-Aryan  origin.2 
It  is  the  Book  of  Leviticus  of  Zoroastrianism.  It  has 
been  conjectured  that  this  ritual  was  introduced  by  the 
Magi  at  the  end  of  the  Achaemenian  period,  i.e.,  between 
405  and  331  B.C.  At  any  rate,  it  reproduces  old  Iranian 

1  See  J.  H.  Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism  (London,  1913),  p.  182. 
'  So  Moulton,  ibid.,  p.  183. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  121 

material,  which  probably  represents  the  attitude  of 
Zoroaster  as  little  as  the  Levitical  laws  represent  that 
of  the  prophet  Amos. 

The  term  "Bundahishn"  means  "creation  of  the  be- 
ginnings" or  "original  creation."  The  work  is  a  collec- 
tion of  fragments  relating  to  cosmogony,  mythology, 
and  legendary  history.  It  is  compiled  in  the  Pahlavi 
dialect,  that  stage  in  the  development  of  the  Persian 
language  when  the  older  inflectional  endings  had  been 
dropped  and  before  the  modern  Persian  alphabet  had 
been  introduced.  Its  legendary  history  contains  ac- 
counts of  Zoroaster's  life. 

124.  The  Iranian  religion  before  Zoroaster  was 
clearly  a  type  of  polytheism  kindred  to  that  of  the  Vedas. 
Mithra,  a  sun-god  kindred  to  the  Vedic  Mitra,  was 
widely  worshiped,  as  was  Ahura,  who  corresponds  to  the 
Vedic  Asura,  and  the  Greek  Ouranos,1  and  was  appar- 
ently originally  a  sky-god.  Varuna  is  sometimes  called 
Asura  (the  Sanskrit  form  of  Ahura),  which  means 
"lord."  Ahura  appears  to  have  been  called  among  the 
Persians,  even  before  the  time  of  Zoroaster,  Ahura 
Mazdah,  the  Wise  Lord,  for  his  name  appears  in  a  list  of 
gods  compiled  for  the  library  of  Ashurbanipal,  king  of 
Assyria  (668-626  B.C.),  where  it  occurs  near  that  of  an 
Elamite  deity.2  As  this  inscription  was  written  before 
Zoroaster  began  to  preach,  it  affords  positive  proof  of  the 
existence  of  Ahura  Mazdah  as  a  pre-Zoroastrian  divinity. 
The  prominence  of  fire  even  in  the  religion  of  Zoroaster 

'See  M.  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda  (New  York,  1908), 
pp. 136  ff. 

1  See  H.  Rawlinson,  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,  III 
(London,  1870),  p.  66,  col.  DC,  24;  cf.  also  F.  Hommel  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,  XXI  (1899),  127, 132. 


122  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

indicates  that  the  Iranians  reverenced  a  fire-spirit 
kindred  to  the  Indian  Agni.  That  these  gods  were 
related  to  those  of  India  is  further  shown  by  the  promi- 
nence of  Haoma,  the  Vedic  Soma  (an  intoxicating 
drink),  in  their  cults — a  feature  that  later  found  its  way 
back  into  Zoroastrianism.1  In  later  tradition  Haoma 
was  thought  to  be  an  angel  with  whom  Zoroaster  once 
conversed.  Together  with  these  deities  many  daevas 
were  feared.  In  later  times  these  were  regarded  as 
demons,  but  before  Zoroaster  they  may  have  been 
reverenced  as  gods,  since  the  corresponding  word  deva 
in  Sanskrit  means  god.  This  is,  however,  uncertain. 

The  conditions  of  existence  on  the  elevated  plains 
of  Iran  colored  the  religious  thought  of  the  people.  It 
was  not  easy  for  the  agricultural  communities  to  wrest 
the  means  of  subsistence  from  an  arid  soil  that  must  be 
continually  irrigated.  From  the  sterile  steppes,  espe- 
cially from  Turan  (Turkestan)  to  the  north,  unsettled 
nomads  were  ever  ready  to  swoop  down  and  plunder  the 
crops  and  cattle  of  Iran.  The  world  naturally  seemed 
to  them,  because  of  this,  a  struggle  between  good  and 
evil — between  light  and  darkness.  All  that  promoted 
agriculture  and  the  raising  of  cattle  was  good;  whatever 
destroyed  these  was  evil.  As  time  passed,  this  view  of 
the  universe  was  intensified. 

125.  Life  of  Zoroaster. — The  Gathas,  our  only  con- 
temporary source,  are  religious  hymns.  They  contain 
no  biography  of  Zarathushtra  or  Zoroaster,  and  the  tra- 
ditions in  later  documents  are  conflicting.  It  seems 

1  See,  for  example,  Yasht  xxiii  of  the  Avesta  in  F.  Max  Miiller, 
Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XXIII,  and  Yasna  ix,  1-16,  ibid., 
Vol.  XXXI. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  123 

certain  that  Zoroaster  was  born  in  Iran,  but  whether  in 
Bactria  or  Media  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Professor  Jackson 
favors  the  view  that  he  was  born  in  Atropatene  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Lake  Urumia.1  Little  is  known  of  his 
early  life.  According  to  tradition  he  retired  from  the 
world  when  about  twenty  years  of  age,  giving  himself 
for  a  number  of  years  to  religious  meditation.  During 
these  years  he  fought  out  the  fight  of  his  own  faith  and 
doubtless  began  the  formulation  of  the  general  truths  of 
his  religious  system.  When  about  thirty  the  revelation 
came  to  him.  In  a  vision  that  was  repeated  thrice  in  one 
day  he  was  admitted  to  the  presence  of  Ahura  Mazdah2 
in  heaven,  and  the  Supreme  Being  himself  instructed 
Zoroaster,  by  the  Omniscient  Wisdom,  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  faith.  Upon  returning  to  earth  Zoroaster  began 
to  preach  to  the  ruling  priests  the  new  religion — the 
worshiping  of  Mazdah,  the  anathematizing  of  demons, 
the  glorification  of  the  archangels,  and  the  marriage  of 
the  next  of  kin. 

During  the  next  seven  or  eight  years  he  was  granted 
six  more  visions,  in  which  each  of  the  archangels 
appeared  to  him:  Vohu  Manah,  or  "Good  Thought"; 
Asha  Vahishta,  or  "Perfect  Righteousness";  Khsha- 
thra  Vairya,  or  "Wished-for  Kingdom";  Spenta 
Armaiti,  a  feminine  personification  of  harmony  and  the 
earth;  Haurvatat,  "Health"  or  "Salvation";  and 

1  Cf.  A.  V.  W.  Jackson,  Zoroaster  the  Prophet  of  Ancient  Iran, 
pp.  16-22.  No  certain  account  of  the  prophet's  life  or  the  early  develop- 
ment of  the  religion  is  possible.    The  account  given  in  the  text  is  con- 
fessedly conjectural,  though  based  on  legends  which  may  have  had 
facts  behind  them,  since  Zoroaster  was  a  historical  personage. 

2  Spelled  also  in  Pahlavi  as  Auharmazd  and  in  later  Persian  as 
Ormuzd. 


124  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Ameretat,  or  "Immortality."  In  Zoroaster's  thought 
these  six  personified  qualities,  or  institutions,  became  the 
chief  attendants  and  agencies  of  Ahura  Mazdah.  Possi- 
bly he  substituted  them  for  spirits  which  the  earlier 
heathenism  had  associated  with  Ahura,  for  in  the  list  of 
Ashurbanipal,  Ahura  Mazdah  is  referred  to  in  connection 
with  the  seven  Igigi,  or  spirits  of  heaven.  For  ten 
years  Zoroaster  presented  his  doctrine  in  vain  at  court 
after  court  of  the  petty  rulers  of  Iran  and  Turan.  But 
one  disciple  had  been  won,  Maidyoi-maonha,  Zoroaster's 
cousin.  At  the  end  of  this  period  of  preaching  and  com- 
munion with  the  powers  of  heaven  Zoroaster  underwent 
a  severe  temptation. 

In  the  eleventh  year  of  his  mission  Zoroaster  sought 
out  the  court  of  a  certain  Vishtaspa  (Hystaspes),  where 
he  spent  two  years  trying  to  convert  the  monarch.  Of 
course  he  met  with  much  opposition,  but  finally  he  was 
successful,  and  Vishtaspa  became  a  disciple  and  a  cham- 
pion of  the  faith.  His  court  followed  the  example  of 
the  ruler,  and  the  subjects  of  the  realm  came  into  out- 
ward conformity.  The  conversion  of  Vishtaspa  changed 
the  whole  outlook  of  Zoroastrianism.  The  prophet  was 
no  longer  a  lonely  preacher;  he  had  now  a  powerful 
royal  patron  who  could  back  the  appeal  of  the  new 
religion  with  force  of  arms. 

If  we  follow  the  traditional  chronology  of  the  life  of 
Zoroaster,  as  Professor  Jackson  is  inclined  to  do,  the 
prophet  was  born  about  660  B.C.  His  preaching  began 
about  630  B.C.,  and,  when  Vishtaspa  was  converted  in 
618  B.C.,  Zoroaster  was  forty-two  years  old.  The  same 
tradition  says  that  he  lived  to  be  seventy-seven  years 
old.  If  this  be  true,  his  ministry  continued  thirty-five 


ZOROASTRIANISM  125 

years  after  the  conversion  of  Vishtaspa.  During  these 
years  various  sages  are  reputed  to  have  come  to  the 
court  of  Vishtaspa  in  order  to  refute  Zoroaster,  and  to 
have  been  converted  by  him.  The  chief  of  these  was 
the  Brahman  Cangranghacah.  Perhaps  the  story  of 
this  Brahman  is  historical,  though  those  relating  to 
Greek  conversions  are  doubtless  apocryphal. 

According  to  traditions  Vishtaspa  was  compelled  to 
fight  two  wars  in  consequence  of  the  new  religion.  These 
wars  were  fought  with  Arejat-aspa  (Arjasp),  a  Turanian, 
who  invaded  Vishtaspa Js  kingdom  from  the  north.  The 
first  invasion  of  Arejat-aspa  resulted  in  the  complete 
defeat  of  the  unbelievers.  This  was  accomplished 
through  the  heroism  of  a  gallant  crusader  of  the  faith, 
Isfendiar,  who  was  rewarded  for  his  valor  with  the  hand 
of  Vishtaspa's  daughter.  Between  the  first  holy  war  and 
the  second  a  considerable  period  elapsed.  Jamasp  is 
said  to  have  written  down  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster 
and  the  scriptures  were  circulated  even  to  distant  lands. 
Isfendiar,  who  had  expected  to  succeed  the  monarch, 
was  thrown  into  prison  through  the  jealousy  of  another 
prince.  While  Vishtaspa  was  absent  in  Seistan,  Arejat- 
aspa  again  invaded  the  kingdom.  There  was  only  his 
aged  father  Lohrasp  to  defend  it.  He  was  unequal  to 
the  task.  The  kingdom  was  overrun  and  Zoroaster 
slam.  This  was,  on  the  traditional  chronology,  in  the 
year  583-582  B.C.  The  Iranians  were  beleaguered  on  a 
lonely  height  and  all  seemed  to  be  lost,  when  Isfendiar 
was  released  from  prison  and  saved  the  day.  Jamasp  is 
said  to  have  been  the  prophet's  first  successor. 

126.  Teachings. — Zoroaster  was  a  practical  mono- 
theist.  In  his  thought  Ahura  Mazdah  was  the  One 


126  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Supreme  Deity.  He  appears  to  have  taken  this  god 
from  among  those  revered  by  his  Aryan  ancestors  and 
to  have  done  for  him  what  Amos  and  the  prophets  of 
the  eighth  century  did  for  Yahweh.  To  him  Ahura 
Mazdah  was  the  all-wise  Creator,  who  knows  ah1  inex- 
plicable things.1  He  knows  men's  secret  sins;*  he  is 
absolute  Lord.3  The  absolute  sovereignty  of  Ahura 
Mazdah  was  in  the  present  state  of  the  world  potential 
only.  Though  Zoroaster  in  the  Gathas  does  not  have 
much  to  say  of  Angra  Mainyu,  it  is  nevertheless  assumed 
that  the  spirit  of  evil  is  as  eternal  as  Ahura  Mazdah  him- 
self, and  exists  independently  of  him.4  Nevertheless 
Ahura  Mazdah  will  in  the  end  achieve  dominion  over 
him.5  The  agencies  employed  by  Ahura  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  will  were  the  heavenly  helpers,  Good 
Thought,  Perfect  Righteousness,  Wished-for  Kingdom, 
etc.,  though  in  the  thought  of  Zoroaster  Good  Thought 
and  Perfect  Righteousness  are  far  more  important  than 
the  others.  Popular  Iranian  belief  held  the  animistic 
idea  that  each  person  had  a  guardian  spirit  or  double 
called  a  Fravashi,  which  seems  to  have  been  analogous 
to  the  Egyptian  Ka.  Zoroaster  appears  to  have 
rejected  this  idea,  but  he  retained  an  analogous  one 
that  there  is  a  heavenly  ox-soul  which  bore  a  similar 
relation  to  cattle  as  the  Fravashis  to  men.6 

Zoroaster  proclaimed  that  Ahura  Mazdah  demands 
righteousness  of  men,  and  that  his  help  is  promised  to 
those  who  desire  it.7  It  is  assumed  that  man  is  the 

1  See  Yasna  li. 

2  Yasna  xxxi,  13.  «  Yasna  xlv,  10,  n. 
*  Yasna  xxxi,  21.                           '  Yasna  xxix,  i. 

« Yasna  xlv,  a.  1  Yasna  xxxiv,  15;  xliii,  i. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  127 

arbiter  of  his  own  destiny;  that  he  can  do  right  if  he 
will.  Right  is  truthfulness,  the  practice  of  justice,  and 
the  fostering  of  agriculture;  wrong  is  lying,  robbery, 
and  the  destruction  of  irrigation  and  cattle.  On  the 
last  day  the  characters  of  men  will  be  tried  by  the  ordeal 
of  passing  through  molten  metal.1  The  righteous,  who 
come  out  unharmed,  will  be  accorded  eternal  bliss;  the 
evil  will  be  assigned  to  the  house  of  liars  forever.2  The 
gospel  of  Zoroaster  was  characterized  by  its  power  of 
abstract  thought,  as  well  as  by  its  ethical  and  practical 
insight.  It  was  distinctly  an  effort  of  religious  reform. 
The  prophet  rejected  the  popular  gods  as  daevas  or 
demons,3  and  apparently  most  of  the  popular  religious 
practices. 

127.  Under  the  Achaemenians. — The  details  of  the 
early  progress  of  Zoroastrianism  are  shrouded  in  ob- 
scurity. How  far  the  wars  of  Vishtaspa,  the  patron  of 
the  prophet,  carried  it  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
It  seems  probable,  though  not  certain,  that  the  kings  of 
the  powerful  Achaemenian  Dynasty,  founded  by  Cyrus 
the  Great  in  553  B.C.,  were  from  the  first  Zoroastrians. 
It  is  true  that  Cyrus  in  the  one  inscription  of  his  that 
has  come  down  to  us — an  inscription  written  in  Baby- 
lonian and  found  at  Babylon* — speaks  of  himself  as  a 
worshiper  of  the  Babylonian  god  Marduk.  This  he 
probably  did  for  reasons  of  state,  and  he  may  well  have 
thought  that  all  gods  were  but  other  names  for  Ahura. 

1  Yasna  xxxiv,  4;  cf.  I  Cor.  3: 13:  "The  fire  shall  try  every  man's 
work." 

*  Yasna  xliii,  5;  xlv,  7;  xlviii,  7;  xlix,  n,  i,  2,  etc. 
'Yasna  xlviii,  i. 

*  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  p.  385,  for  a  trans- 
lation. 


128  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

That  he  named  his  daughter  Atossa,  the  same  as  Huta- 
osa,  the  queen  of  Vishtaspa,  has  been  held  to  indicate 
that  he  probably  reverenced  everything  connected  with 
the  prophet.1  Darius  I  and  Xerxes  in  their  inscriptions 
constantly  refer  to  Ahura  Mazdah  as  their  god.  It  is 
true  that  there  is  no  real  certainty  that  they  thought  of 
Ahura  as  Zoroaster  thought  of  him,  but  they  say  nothing 
to  indicate  that  they  thought  of  Ahura  as  only  one 
among  many  deities.2  Apparently  Darius  was  a  mono- 
theist.  The  father  of  Darius,  too,  bore  the  name 
Hystaspes,  or  Vishtaspa — a  fact  that  creates  a  probability 
that  also  in  this  branch  of  the  Achaemenians  Zoroaster 
and  his  patron  were  honored.3 

It  seems  probable  that  Zoroastrianism  was  the 
religion  of  Persia  at  this  tune,  for  Herodotus,  who 
visited  the  country  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  I,  describes 
the  religion  as  substantially  that  represented  in  the 
Yashts  of  the  Avesta.  He  says  that  they  worship  the 
whole  circle  of  heaven  under  the  name  of  Zeus.  This 
was  the  Greek  way  of  indicating  the  equivalent  of  Zeus. 
It  is  testimony  that  Ahura  Mazdah,  who,  as  already 
shown,  was  originally  the  sky-god,  was  the  chief  deity. 
Along  with  him  he  says  they  worshiped  the  sun  (Mithra)  ,4 
the  moon,5  the  earth,6  fire,7  water,8  and  the  winds,9  as 

1  Cf.  J.  H.  Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism,  pp.  88  f. 

a  See  the  inscriptions  of  Darius  translated  in  A  ssyrian  and  Babylonian 
Literature,  edited  by  R.  F.  Harper  (New  York,  1901),  pp.  174-93. 

3  See  Moulton,  ibid. 

« See  the  Mihir  Yasht,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXIII,  1 19-58,  and 
A.  J.  Carnoy,  Iranian  Mythology  (Boston,  1917),  pp.  287-88. 

s  Ibid.,  pp.  8,  16,  19. 

6  Ibid.,  pp.  286  ff.  •  Ibid.,  pp.  16,  356  f. 

' Ibid.,  pp.  358  f.  'Ibid.,  p.  18. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  129 

well  as  a  mother-goddess  whom  they  had  borrowed  from 
the  Semites.1  She  was  the  Avestan  Anahita.2  In  the 
Yashts  and  Sirozas  of  the  Avesta  the  worship  of  these 
elements  appears  in  conjunction  with  Ahura  Mazdah  and 
the  six  good  spirits:  Good  Thought,  Perfect  Righteous- 
ness, etc. ;  hence  it  seems  probable  that  by  this  time  the 
pure  ethical  teaching  of  Zoroaster,  which  was  probably 
in  advance  of  the  thought  of  the  majority,  had  been 
fused  with  much  of  the  earlier  heathen  practices. 
Among  these  practices  was,  apparently,  that  of  main- 
taining the  sacred  fires.  Tradition  attributed  the 
kindling  of  some  of  these  to  Zoroaster.  Except  for  the 
compromise  with  older  customs  Zoroastrianism  could 
probably  not  have  survived.  In  this  respect  the  ex- 
perience of  Zoroastrianism  was  parallel  to  the  religion 
of  Israel,  to  Mohammedanism,  and  even  to  Christianity. 
A  place  was  found  for  these  additional  objects  of  worship 
by  supposing  that  they  were  reverenced  as  creations  of 
Ahura. 

Under  the  Achaemenians  the  Magi,  originally  a 
Median  tribe,3  gradually  attained  power  through  royal 
patronage  and  became  the  priests  of  Zoroastrianism.4 
It  was  probably  due  to  their  influence  that  during  the 

1The  passage  is  Herodotus  i.  131.  Herodotus  confused  Mithra 
with  Anahita. 

'Ibid.,  pp.  52-84,  and  Moulton,  op.  cil.,  pp.  66,  and  238  f.  Arta- 
xerxes  Mnemon,  405-359  B.C.,  is  the  first  to  mention  these  new  deities 
in  inscriptions. 

» Herodotus  i.  101. 

«They  came  into  favor  through  Cambyses,  who  appointed  one  of 
them  as  his  steward  (Herodotus  iii.  61).  They  were  in  disfavor  after 
the  accession  of  Darius  I,  but  later  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  became  their 
patron,  and  their  triumph  was  complete.  See  Berossos  as  quoted  by 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  Exhortation  to  the  Greeks,  V,  65. 


130  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

closing  decades  of  the  Achaemenian  Dynasty  the  Avesta 
was  completed  by  the  addition  of  the  Yashts  and  the 
Vendidad.  By  these  additions  the  ethical  system  of 
Zoroaster  was  grafted  into  a  mass  of  nature-myths  and 
ritual  with  which  it  originally  had  little  in  common. 
The  ritual  is  as  arid  as  that  connected  with  any  Semitic 
religion. 

One  other  theological  addition  can  be  traced — the 
raising  of  Angra  Mainyu  to  the  position  of  an  archfiend. 
Zoroaster,  as  already  pointed  out,  had  recognized  that 
at  the  beginning  there  were  two  spirits.1  These  two 
spirits  he  described  as  twins  and  defined  them  as  the 
Better  and  the  Bad  (Angra)  in  thought,  word,  and 
action;3  it  was  the  Bad  Spirit  who  taught  the  daevas  and 
liars  to  ruin  mankind.3  Beyond  this  Zoroaster  did  not 
go,  but  in  the  Vendidad,  Angra  Mainyu,  or  the  Bad 
Spirit,  is  portrayed  as  the  evil  counterpart  of  Ahura 
Mazdah,  who  at  the  time  of  creation  met  each  beneficent 
creation  of  Ahura  Mazdah  by  a  counter-creation  of  evil.4 
Whereas  in  the  thought  of  Zoroaster,  Angra  Mainyu  was 
apparently  thought  of  as  a  spirit  who  could  be  largely 
ignored,  and  whose  influence  could  be  overcome  by 
right-doing,  in  the  Vendidad  he  had  become  an  active 
and  malignant  devil,  whose  presence  it  was  necessary  to 
banish,  along  with  that  of  other  demons,  by  powerful 
incantations.5 

128.  Under  Greeks  and  Parthians. — The  conquest 
of  Persia  by  Alexander  the  Great  gave  the  development 
of  Zoroastrianism  a  great  check.  Greek  cities  were 

1  Yasna  xlv,  2. 

a  Yasna  xxx,  3.  « See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  IV,  4  ff . 

»  Yasna  xxxii,  5.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  142  f . 


ZOROASTRIANISM  131 

founded  in  many  parts  of  Persia.  Zoroastrians  were  no 
longer  the  ruling  caste,  and  there  was  a  popular  move- 
ment in  favor  of  polytheism.  Later  the  Zoroastrian 
countries  passed  under  the  sway  of  Parthia,  but  this  did 
not  permanently  improve  the  status  of  the  religion.  At 
first  the  Magi  were  held  in  high  esteem  and  had  much 
influence,1  but  later  they  fell  Into  disfavor  and  were 
deprived  of  power.3  The  Parthians  were  tolerant  of  all 
religions,  and,  even  if  in  theory  Zoroastrianism  was  main- 
tained, that  which  most  impressed  a  foreign  observer  was 
the  worship  of  Mithra,  or  the  sun,3  and  the  adoration  of 
rivers4 — both  features  of  the  cult  of  the  later  Avesta. 
While  this  may  have  been  the  official  cult,  the  people 
worshiped  with  special  ceremonies  household  gods  rep- 
resented by  images.5  Josephus  calls  these  "ancestral," 
and  it  was  doubtless  an  old  cult  that  Zoroastrianism  had 
never  suppressed.  In  spite  of  these  disintegrating  influ- 
ences the  religion  maintained  itself  and  the  sacred  fires 
were  kept  burning  during  the  five  hundred  and  fifty 
years  from  the  conquest  of  Alexander  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  second  Persian  empire  under  the  Sasanian 
Dynasty  in  220  A.D. 

129.  The  Sasanians,  who  were  intensely  patriotic 
Persians,  regarded  Zoroastrianism  as  their  ancestral  faith 
and  inaugurated  an  enthusiastic  revival  of  it.  The 
sacred  Avesta  was  not  only  copied  and  studied,  but, 
since  in  the  lapse  of  centuries  the  inflections  of  spoken 

'Strabo,  XI,  ix,  3. 
'  Agathias  ii.  26. 

*  Herodian  iv.  30. 

*  Justin  xli.  3. 

s  Josephus,  Antiquities  of  the  Jems,  XVIII,  ix,  5. 


132  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Persian  had  so  worn  away  that  the  language  of  the  Avesta 
was  no  longer  understood,  paraphrases  hi  the  vernacular 
were  circulated.  Such  paraphrases  were  also  necessary 
because  in  the  Sasanian  period  an  alphabet  was  in  use 
different  from  that  employed  in  the  Avesta.  The  para- 
phrases of  the  Sasanian  tune,  like  the  Jewish  targums 
to  some  of  the  biblical  books,  were  often  free  reproduc- 
tions into  which  much  new  material  was  woven.  Such 
texts  are  known  as  Pahlavi-texts — Pahlavi  being  the 
name  of  the  writing  of  this  period.  It  is  generally  ac- 
cepted that  "Pahlavi"  is  a  corruption  of  "Parthian." 
While  the  Pahlavi-texts  were  based  on  the  Avesta,  and 
are  believed  in  parts  to  preserve  the  substance  of  Avestan 
books  that  are  now  lost,  they  represent  the  final  doc- 
trinal development  of  Zoroastrianism.  To  the  doctrine 
of  this  period  we  shall  presently  return.  Under  some  of 
the  Sasanians  Zoroastrianism  became  again  a  militant 
religion.  At  times  it  was  propagated  by  the  sword. 
One  king  actually  imposed  it  for  a  tune  on  the  Arme- 
nian Christians.1  The  four  hundred  years  of  Sasanian 
supremacy  witnessed  the  last  triumph  of  this  faith. 

130.  Since  the  Mohammedan  conquest  Zoroastrian- 
ism has  declined.  Under  the  early  caliphs  Zoroastrians 
were,  with  Jews  and  Christians,  accorded  the  privilege 
of  retaining  their  religion  and  paying  a  head  tax,  since 
they,  too,  were  "people  of  a  book"  (i.e.,  possessed 
scriptures).  Later  they  were  denied  this  exemption. 
Until  the  ninth  century  they  appear  to  have  flourished, 
since  Pahlavi-texts  were  written  in  considerable  numbers 
until  then,  but  after  this  they  began  to  decline.  The 
cause  is  obscure.  It  may  have  been  due  to  the  influence 

1  Cf.  George  Rawlinson,  The  Seventh  Oriental  Monarchy,  chap,  xv 


ZOROASTRIANISM  133 

of  fanatical  Shiites  and  to  the  oppression  by  Seljuk 
Turks.  Two  hundred  years  ago  Zoroastrians  were  esti- 
mated at  one  hundred  thousand  in  Persia;  today  they 
number  only  about  ten  thousand  souls.1 

In  the  early  centuries  of  Islam,  Zoroastrians  estab- 
lished themselves  in  India.  Their  descendants  now  num- 
ber about  a  hundred  thousand.  They  reside  chiefly  in 
the  Bombay  presidency  and  are  very  prosperous.  They 
had  become  very  ignorant  of  their  sacred  books,  which 
they  could  read  only  in  imperfect  translations,  though  in 
the  last  fifty  years,  through  a  revival  of  learning,  they 
have  revived  their  religion  through  a  clearer  knowledge 
of  its  sources.  Through  all  the  centuries  they  have 
adhered  with  considerable  fidelity  to  their  ritual. 

131.  Final  form  of  the  doctrines. — The  historical 
development  of  Zoroastrianism  from  the  Gathas  to  the 
Bundahishn  resulted  in  a  theory  of  the  world  based  on  a 
well-defined  dualism.  The  forces  of  good  were  led  by 
Ahura  Mazdah  and  the  six  archangels,  who  were  followed 
by  many  angels  and  lesser  divine  beings.  The  arch- 
angels were,  as  in  the  tune  of  Zoroaster,  Vohu  Manah, 
Asha  Vahishta,  Khshathra  Vairya,  Spenta  Armaiti, 
Haurvatat,  and  Ameretat.  In  the  Bundahishn  these  six 
are  called  Amesha  Spentas  ("Immortal  Holy  Ones"). 
The  angels  and  lesser  divine  beings  are  called  Yazatas 
("Worshipful  Ones").  Mithra  and  Anahita  had  in  this 
period  become  angels.  Opposed  to  Ahura  Mazdah  is 
Angra  Mainyu  (also  called  Ahriman)  and  his  hosts. 
The  hosts  of  evil  were  not  so  well  organized  as  the  hosts  of 
good.  After  Ahriman  the  demon  Aehsma  (Daeva)* 

1  Cf.  G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions  (New  York,  1913),  pp.  378  f. 
1  See  Tobit  in.  17,  where  he  is  called  Asmodaeus. 


134  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

seems  to  have  been  the  most  prominent.  To  him  were 
given  seven  powers.1  The  other  arch  demons,  mentioned 
incidentally  in  the  Avesta,  in  the  Pahlavi-books  were 
named  Akoman,  or  Ako  Manu  ("Bad  Thought"),  Andar 
(who  is  no  other  than  the  Vedic  god  Indra),*  S6var, 
NakahM,  Tairgv,  and  Zairik.  These  six,  in  some  pas- 
sages, form  with  Angra  Mainyu  a  group  antithetic  to 
Ahura  Mazdah  and  the  Amesha  Spentas.3  To  many 
other  demons  proper  names  and  special  functions  were 
assigned;4  and  in  addition  many  other  demons  were  sup- 
posed to  exist.  Nevertheless  Ahriman  was  not  believed 
to  be  either  eternal  or  omniscient.5 

Ahura  Mazdah  created  the  world,  making  first  the 
sky,  then  water,  then  the  earth,  plants,  animals,  and  man- 
kind, in  the  order  named.6  The  creation  occupied  a  year 
of  365  days,  and  was  divided  into  six  periods  of  two 
months  each.7  When  Ahriman  rose  from  the  abyss8  and 
beheld  the  work  of  Ahura  Mazdah,  he  desired  to  destroy 
it.  Ahura  Mazdah  met  him  and  offered  him  an  opportu- 
nity to  co-operate  with  the  good,  but  Ahriman  refused. 
Ahriman  was  then  granted  by  Ahura  Mazdah  a  period  of 
nine  thousand  years  in  which  to  contest  the  mastery  of 
the  world,9  and  proceeded  to  bring  evil  thoughts  into 
men's  minds  and  to  mingle  disagreeable  elements  with 
the  good  works  of  the  Creator.  For  example,  Ahriman 
mingled  smoke  and  darkness  with  fire.10 

1  Bundahishn  (in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  V)  xxviii,  15. 

*  See  chap.  viii. 

J  Bundahishn  i,  27.  .  *  Ibid,  xxv,  i. 

« Ibid,  xxviii,  7  f .  '  Ibid .  i,  9. 

*Ibid.  iii,  9,  13.  » Ibid,  i,  20. 

« Ibid,  i,  28.  » Ibid,  iii,  24. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  135 

The  nine  thousand  years  just  mentioned  bring  to  our 
notice  the  Zoroastrian  theory  of  the  world.  According 
to  this  theory  the  world-cycle  consisted  of  12,000  years. 
Of  these,  3,000  passed  while  all  creatures  were  unthink- 
ing and  unmoving.  This  was  the  spiritual  state,1  when 
only  the  Fravashis  existed.  This  was  followed  by  3,000 
years  of  confusion.  The  confusion  was  caused  by 
Ahriman,  but  during  it  Ahura  Mazdah  created  his 
material  creatures.3  During  the  third  period  of  3,000 
years  Ahriman  descended  to  the  earth  and  brought 
evils  upon  men.3  This  was  the  period  of  greatest 
distress.  The  wills  of  Ahura  Mazdah  and  Ahriman 
were  mingled  in  the  world.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
ninth  millennium  Zoroaster  was  born.  This  last  millen- 
nial age  is  presided  over  by  Zoroaster,  whom  the 
Bundahishn  regards  as  divine,  and  his  three  posthumous 
sons,  the  last  of  whom,  Soshyans  ("Savior"  or  "Bene- 
factor"), will  be  a  kind  of  Messiah.  He  will  render  the 
evil  spirit  impotent  and  cause  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.4  Ahriman  will  be  disabled  and  overthrown.5 
This  cycle  of  12,000  years  may  have  belonged  to  primi- 
tive Zoroastrianism.  It  is  clearly  based  on  the  con- 
ception of  a  world-year — a  thousand  years  for  each  of 
the  twelve  months.  Zoroastrianism  looked  forward, 
however,  to  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Ahura  Mazdah, 
just  as  the  Jews  looked  forward  to  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  Yahweh  and  his  Messiah. 

Zoroastrians  believe  in  a  resurrection  of  all  men.    At 
the  resurrection  a  wicked  man  will  be  as  conspicuous  as 

1  Bundahishn  xxxiv,  i. 

*  Ibid,  i,  23.  4  Ibid,  xi,  6  and  xxxii,  8. 

J  Cf.  ibid,  xxxiv,  i  with  iv,  i  ff.  *  Ibid,  i,  20. 


136  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

a  white  sheep  in  a  flock  of  black  ones.1  The  righteous 
are  destined  for  heaven  and  the  wicked  for  hell.  All 
will  be  tested  by  passing  through  molten  metal.  It  will 
seem  to  the  righteous  that  they  are  walking  in  warm 
milk,  but  to  the  wicked,  that  they  are  walking  in  molten 
metal  forever.2  Relatives  will  then  be  reunited  with 
the  greatest  affection,3  and  the  righteous  will  be  con- 
veyed to  paradise  and  the  heaven  of  Ahura  Mazdah.4 
Hell  was  thought  to  be  in  the  midst  of  the  earth,  where 
Ahriman  pierced  it  and  rushed  into  it  when  he  first 
attacked  it.s  Into  hell  all  the  demons  will  be  cast  at 
the  end  of  the  period  of  12,000  years.  Then  Ahura 
Mazdah,  the  good  Creator,  will  be  completely  trium- 
phant and  a  new  and  perfect  world  established  for  all 
time. 

132.  Estimate  of  Zoroastrianism. — Next  to  Judaism 
Zoroastrianism  is  the  oldest  ethical  monotheism  in  the 
world.  Zoroaster  was  a  great  religious  genius  who 
caught  something  of  eternal  truth  and  successfully  inter- 
preted it  to  men.  He  and  his  followers  were  keenly 
alive  to  the  struggle  between  good  and  evil.  To  them 
the  world  was  a  great  battlefield  on  which  this  struggle 
was  being  fought  out.  They  laid  great  stress  on  con- 
duct and  demanded  a  noble  ethical  life.  They  had  firm 
faith  in  God  as  they  saw  him,  faith  in  man,  and  faith  in 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  right  and  of  God.  The  thought 
and  development  of  Zoroastrianism  are  in  many  ways 
parallel  to  those  of  Judaism.  Some  scholars  have 
endeavored  to  show  that  Zoroastrianism  borrowed  from 

1  Bundahishn  xxx,  10. 

*  Ibid,  iii,  27.  « Ibid,  xxx,  21. 

1  Ibid,  xxx,  ac  *  Ibid,  xxx,  27. 


ZOROASTRIANISM  137 

Judaism;  others  that  Judaism  borrowed  from  Zoroas- 
trianism,  but  no  considerable  borrowing  in  either  direc- 
tion can  be  proved.  Each  religion  appears  to  have 
grasped  some  truth,  and  to  have  developed  in  its  own 
environment  independently  of  the  other.  Such  like- 
nesses as  there  are  came  from  similarity  of  conditions 
and  the  psychological  unity  of  man. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sees.  122,  124:    cf.   J.   H.   Moulton,   Early    Zoroastrianism 

(London,  1913),  Lectures  I,  II. 
On  sec.  125:    cf.  A.  V.  W.  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  the  Prophet  of 

Ancient  Iran  (New  York  and  London,  1901),  passim. 
On  sec.  126:    cf.  J.  H.  Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism,  pp.  343-90. 
On  sec.  127:    cf.   Jackson    and    Gray,    "The   Religion   of   the 

Achaemenian    Kings,"    Journal   of  the   American   Oriental 

Society,  XXI  (1900),  160-84;  L.  H.  Gray,  "Achaemenians" 

in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  I,  69-73 ; 

and  J.  H.  Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism,  Lectures  VI,  VII. 
On  sec.  128:    cf.  George  Rawlinson,  Sixth  Oriental   Monarchy, 

chap,  xxiii. 
On  sec.  129:    George    Rawlinson,    Seventh   Oriental    Monarchy, 

chap,  xxviii. 
On  sec.  130:    A.  V.  W.  Jackson,  "Zoroastrianism,"  in  the  Jewish 

Encyclopedia,  XII,  695-97;  G.  F.  Moore,  "Zoroastrianism," 

Harvard  Theological  Review,  V,  180-226;  or  J.  H.  Moulton, 

Early  Zoroastrianism,  Lectures  IV,  V. 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions  (New  York,  1913),  chaps,  xv,  rvi. 


CHAPTER  Vin 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS 

Thou  Indra  who  Greatest  light  where  there  was  no  light,  and 
form,  O  men!  where  there  was  no  form,  hast  been  born  together 
with  the  dawns. — Rig- Veda,  I,  6,  3. 

Indra  speaks:  Almighty  strength  be  mine  alone,  whatever  I 
may  do  daring  in  my  heart;  for  I  indeed,  O  Maruts,1  am  known  as 
terrible:  of  all  that  I  threw  down,  I,  Indra,  am  lord. — Rig- Veda, 
I,  165,  to. 

Protect  the  dear  footsteps  of  the  cattle.  O  Agni,  thou  who 
hast  a  full  life,  thou  hast  gone  from  covert  to  covert. — Rig- Veda, 
I,  67,  6. 

May  Varuna,  Mitra,  Aryaman,  triumphant  with  riches  (?), 
sit  down  on  our  sacrificial  grass  as  they  did  on  Manu's. — Rig- 
Veda,  I,  26,  4. 

May  we  unharmed  stand  under  the  protection  of  Agni,  Indra, 
Soma,  of  the  gods;  may  we  overcome  our  foes. — Rig- Veda,  H,  8, 6. 

Your  greatness,  O  Maruts,  is  to  be  honored,  it  is  to  be  yearned 
for  like  the  light  of  the  sun.  Place  us  also  in  immortality;  when 
they  went  in  triumph,  the  chariots  followed. — Rig- Veda,  V,  55,  4. 

Slay  thou,  O  Kama,  those  that  are  my  enemies,  hurl  them 
down  into  blind  darkness.  Devoid  of  vigor,  without  sap  let 
them  all  be;  they  shall  not  live  a  single  day! — Atharva-Veda, 

IX,  2,  10. 

There  is  one  eternal  thinker,  thinking  non-eternal  thoughts, 
who,  though  one,  fulfils  the  desires  of  many.  The  wise  who  per- 
ceive him  within  their  Self,  to  them  belongs  eternal  peace,  not  to 
others. — Katha-Upanishad,  V,  13. 

1  The  storm-gods. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  130 

One  hundred  times  that  bliss  of  Pragapati  is  one  measure  of 
the  bliss  of  Brahman,  and  likewise  of  the  great  sage  who  is  free 
from  desires. — Taittiriyaka-Upanishad,  H,  8,  4. 

He  who  forms  desires  hi  his  mind,  is  born  again  through  his 
desires  here  and  there.  But  to  him  whose  desires  are  fulfilled 
and  who  is  conscious  of  the  true  Self  (within  himself)  all  desires 
vanish,  even  here  on  earth — Mundaka-Upanishad,  III,  2,  2. 

133.  The  Land  and  People. — India,  extending  from 
8  to  36  degrees  of  north  latitude  from  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  far  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  presents  a  great 
variety  of  temperature  and  climate.  It  is  a  great  three- 
cornered  country,  about  1,000  miles  from  north  to  south 
and  the  same  distance  from  east  to  west.  The  student 
of  the  Vedic  religion  is,  however,  chiefly  interested  hi  the 
two  great  river- valleys  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges. 
The  upper  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Indus,  where  the 
rivers  are  fed  by  the  melting  of  the  everlasting  snows  on 
the  Himalayas  and  the  climate  is  that  of  the  temperate 
zone,  is  one  of  the  favored  portions  of  the  earth's  surface. 
The  valley  of  the  Ganges  lies  farther  to  the  south;  it  is 
dependent  for  its  fertility  to  a  greater  degree  upon  the 
rains  brought  by  the  monsoons;  the  climate  is  not  favor- 
able to  human  life,  and  the  struggle  for  existence  is 
intensely  severe.  As  compared  with  Persia,  Palestine, 
or  Arabia,  Northern  India  is  a  land  of  fertility. 

From  time  immemorial  India  has  been  populated  by 
a  variety  of  tribes.  It  has  become  customary  in  recent 
years  to  call  many  of  these  Dravidian.1  Not  all  the 

1  See  the  article  "Dravidian"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  V,  i  ff.  The  term  was  first  applied  by  Mann  to  a  tribe  of 
Southern  India.  It  has  been  supposed  that  he  meant  to  include  all  of 
them. 


140  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

aboriginal  tribes  of  India  were  of  one  stock,  but,  so  far 
as  we  can  trace  them,  they  appear  to  have  been  back- 
ward races.  At  an  unknown  date,  probably  consider- 
ably more  than  a  thousand  years  before  the  beginning  of 
our  era,  there  came  into  the  upper  Indus  Valley  through 
the  passes  of  the  Hindu  Kush  Mountains  some  tribes  of 
Aryan  stock.  They  were  members  of  the  great  Indo- 
European  race,  and  before  their  migration  into  India  had 
lived  with  their  kinsmen,  the  ancestors  of  the  Persians, 
somewhere  to  the  north  of  the  Hindu  Kush  Mountains. 
They  spread  over  the  upper  part  of  the  valley  of  the 
Indus.  The  majority  of  them  lived  on  the  eastern  side 
of  that  river  in  the  region  called  Punjab,  or  the  five-river 
region.  They  extended  as  far  east  as  the  Sutlej  River. 
In  this  valley  they  lived  for  some  centuries;  here  the 
Vedas  were  composed.  Later,  portions  of  this  Aryan 
race  pressed  on  into  the  valley  of  the  Ganges,  and 
it  is  held  by  some  that  the  change  in  their  religious 
thought,  which  we  shall  trace  in  this  sketch,  was  due 
hi  part  to  the  depressing  effect  of  the  climate  of  that 
valley. 

134.  The  sources  of  information  concerning  the 
religion  of  the  early  Aryans  of  India  are  the  Vedas, 
Brahmanas,  and  Upanishads,  all  of  which  are  counted  as 
Vedic  by  the  people  of  India.  More  than  a  hundred 
books  are  called  Vedas,  some  of  which  are  little  known 
to  scholars.1  The  Vedas,  properly  so  called,  are  the 
Rig- Veda,  Yajur-Veda,  Sama-Veda,  and  Atharva-Veda. 
The  word  "Veda"  springs  from  the  same  root  as  the 
English  "wit"  and  the  German  wissen,  and  means 
"knowledge,"  especially  "sacred  knowledge."  The 

1  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  17. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  141 

oldest  of  the  Vedas  is  the  Rig- Veda — "Rig"  being  from 
a  stem  which  means  "stanzas  of  praise."  It  consists  of 
a  little  more  than  a  thousand  hymns,  containing  about 
10,000  stanzas,  and  equals  in  bulk  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 
Not  all  these  poems  are  "stanzas  of  praise."  Some  of 
the  later  ones  are  blessings  and  curses.  Six  of  these 
books  (II-VII)  are  called  "family  books."  They  are 
supposed  to  have  been  composed  by  different  poets  or 
seers,  or  families  of  such,  each  of  whom  claimed  to  trace 
his  descent  from  a  single  seer.  They  are  the  earliest 
part  of  the  Veda. 

The  Yajur-Veda  takes  its  name  from  a  word  meaning 
"formulae  in  prose."  It  is  later  than  the  Rig- Veda, 
contains  many  of  the  same  hymns,  though  with  many 
new  verses,  and  adds  the  formulae  mentioned.  These  are 
sometimes  mere  dedications,  sometimes  short  prayers, 
and  at  tunes  long  solemn  litanies. 

The  Sama-Veda  takes  its  name  from  a  word  which 
means  "melodies  "  and  is  the  Veda  of  music.  It  contains 
no  connected  hymns,  but  rather  disconnected  verses 
borrowed  mainly  from  the  Rig- Veda.  Some  practices 
not  found  in  the  other  Vedas  appear  in  it.  With  these  a 
number  of  legends  are  connected.  Even  the  sense  of  its 
verses  is  subordinated  to  the  music.  It  is  devoted 
largely  to  the  worship  of  Indra. 

The  Atharva-Veda  is  named  from  one  of  two  ancient 
families  of  priests  who  were  supposed  to  understand 
potent  charms.  It  is  a  collection  of  730  hymns,  con- 
taming  about  6,000  stanzas,  a  part  of  which  are  blessings 
while  others  are  "witchcraft  charms"  or  curses.  It  is  a 
most  valuable  collection  of  popular  practices,  supersti- 
tions, and  folklore. 


142  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  Brahmanas  are  theological  treatises  attached 
sometimes  to  the  Vedas.  They  are  written  in  prose  and 
deal  with  the  sacrificial  ceremonial.  They  were  designed 
to  explain  the  significance  of  the  ceremonial  to  those  who 
were  familiar  with  its  details.  Sometimes  they  reveal  a 
reflective  spirit,  unsatisfied  with  the  mere  offering  of 
animal  sacrifices,  seeking  for  union  with  a  spiritual 
being.  The  .theological  attitude  of  the  Brahmanas  is 
varied,  veering  from  a  very  practical  interest  in  the 
ritual  to  theological  speculation  far  beyond  the  range  of 
ritual. 

Closely  connected  with  the  last-mentioned  side  of  the 
Brahmanas  are  the  Upanishads,  which  are  sometimes 
counted  with  the  Brahmanas,  but  really  present  a  new 
religion.  Next  to  the  Rig- Veda  the  Upanishads  are  the 
most  important  literary  productions  of  Vedic  India. 

135.  Chronology. — It  is  generally  agreed  that  the 
oldest  Upanishads  were  written  before  the  time  of 
Gautama,  called  the  Buddha,  who  died  about  487  B.C. 
This  seems  certain,  since  the  whole  Buddhistic  system 
of  thought  presupposes  the  philosophic  conceptions  of 
the  Upanishads.  Beyond  this  single  fact  we  have  no 
chronological  datum  from  the  Vedic  period.  No  build- 
ing, or  monument,  or  coin,  or  jewel,  or  utensil  has 
come  down  to  us  from  the  Vedic  time.  No  ancient 
Indian  historian  has  left  us  a  chronicle  or  an  outline  of 
the  chronology.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the 
estimates  of  scholars  have  varied  widely.  Some  would 
put  the  Rig-Veda  at  3,000  or  4,000  B.C.;  others  would 
bring  it  down  to  1,000;  advocates  of  2,500,  2,000,  1,500, 
and  1,200  have  not  been  wanting.  Macdonell  supposes 
that  the  Brahmanas  and  Upanishads  developed  in  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  143 

period  800-500  B.C.1  If  this  is  so,  one  need  not  suppose 
that  the  beginnings  of  the  Rig- Veda  antedate  1,500  B.C., 
though  they  may  go  back  to  2,000.  From  what  we 
know  of  the  appearance  of  the  Hittites2  in  history,  and 
of  the  beginnings  of  the  Aryan  occupation  of  Iran,3  it 
does  not  seem  probable  that  the  Aryans  entered  India 
earlier  than  2000  B.C.,  and  it  may  well  have  been  later 
than  that.  It  must,  however,  be  frankly  recognized  that 
we  have  no  direct  evidence  on  this  point. 

136.  The  social  organization  represented  by  the 
Rig- Veda  was  a  simple  patriarchal  society,  ruled  by 
chieftains  called  rajas  (raja  is  philologically  equivalent  to 
the  Latin  rex),  who  were  often  hereditary.  In  the  Rig- 
Veda  occupations  were  not  differentiated;  every  man 
was  a  soldier  as  well  as  a  civilian.  The  family  was  the 
foundation  of  society.  The  father  was  lord  of  the  house; 
he  was  also  a  priest  who  offered  the  sacrifice.  The  wife, 
though  subject  to  him,  occupied  a  position  of  greater 
honor  than  hi  the  age  of  the  Brahmanas,  for  she  partici- 
pated in  the  offering  of  the  sacrifice.  She  was  mistress 
of  the  house  and  shared  the  control  of  the  children,  slaves, 
and  unmarried  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  husband. 
Suitors  asked  the  father  for  a  daughter's  hand,  making 
the  request  through  the  mediation  of  a  friend.  Sons 
and  daughters  married  usually  in  the  order  of  age,  but 
sometimes  girls  remained  unmarried  and  grew  old  in 
their  father's  house.  The  standard  of  morality  was 
comparatively  high.  The  community  was  agricultural. 

1  A.  H.  Macdonell,  A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature  (New  York, 
1900),  chap.  viii. 

» See  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  chap.  iii. 
»  See  chap,  vii,  passim. 


144  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  standard  of  value  was  a  cow.  Horses,  sheep,  goats, 
asses,  and  dogs  were  also  domesticated.  Gold  is  fre- 
quently referred  to,  and  also  bronze.  The  Indus  (ancient 
Sindhu)  is  frequently  mentioned,  as  are  the  five  rivers  of 
the  Punjab  under  ancient  names,  viz.,  the  Jhelum, 
Chenab,  Ravi,  Beas,  and  Sutlej.  The  sea  is  never 
mentioned,  for  the  community  was  confined  to  the  upper 
Indus. 

Later,  conquests  were  made  of  the  aborigines  in  other 
regions,  especially  in  the  valley  of  the  Ganges.  In  the 
course  of  the  struggles  thus  entailed,  a  differentiation  of 
occupations  occurred,  a  priesthood,  a  warrior  class,  as 
well  as  an  agricultural  class,  were  developed,  and  the 
caste  system  came  into  being.  This  system  was  appar- 
ently due  in  part  to  the  gulf  which  separated  the  Aryan 
from  the  colored  race  which  they  conquered,  and  in  part 
to  the  effort  of  the  priesthood,  which  had  now  emerged, 
to  maintain  its  sanctity. 

137.  Vedic  deities. — The  Rig- Veda  states  that  the 
number  of  gods  is  thirty-three,  or  thrice  eleven.  This 
number  is  not  exhaustive,  for  it  does  not  include  the 
storm-gods.  It  is  nevertheless  in  excess  of  the  number 
of  important  deities,  for  there  are  scarcely  twenty  that 
have  as  many  as  three  hymns  addressed  to  them. 
Several  of  these  gods  were  brought  by  the  Indian  Aryans 
from  their  home  beyond  the  Hindu  Kush.  The  most 
important  of  these  was  Indra,  the  national  god  of  the 
Indians,  who  among  the  Persians  was  relegated  to  the 
place  of  a  demon.  The  importance  of  Indra  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  hymns  of  the  Rig- 
Veda  celebrate  his  praises.  Like  other  early  tribal  gods, 
Indra  was  supposed  to  fight  the  national  battles.  This 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  145 

fighting  character  he  never  threw  off.  Like  other  fighters, 
Indra  is  full  of  brag  and  bluster.  The  first  two  quota- 
tions from  the  Rig-Veda  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  suf- 
ficiently indicate  his  character  and  the  attitude  of  his 
worshipers  toward  him.  Indra  paid  the  penalty  of  his 
early  origin.  Owing  to  the  conservatism  of  religious 
thought,  he  never  rose  to  the  height  of  refinement  of  his 
later  worshipers.  He  does  not  represent  the  best  religion 
even  of  the  Vedas.  He  is  of  the  earth,  earthy.  He  slays 
dragons  and  monsters;  he  is  a  glutton,  a  drunkard,  and 
a  boaster.  One  hymn1  is  generally  interpreted  as 
attempting  to  utter  the  vaunting  of  Indra  when  intoxi- 
cated with  soma.  It  is  the  earliest  attempt  in  literature 
to  portray  the  maudlin  exhilaration  arising  from  the  use 
of  alcohol. 

Another  prehistoric  god  of  India  was  Agni,  the  god  of 
fire.  The  sacredness  of  fire  among  the  Persians  attests 
his  antiquity.  Next  to  Indra  he  is  the  most  popular  of 
the  Vedic  gods.  More  than  two  hundred  hymns  are 
addressed  to  him.  While  Agni  is  personified  as  a  god, 
the  consciousness  of  his  origin  was  never  lost.  To  the 
end  all  his  qualities  were  qualities  of  fire. 

Mitra  and  Varuna  are  also  gods  brought  from  the 
primitive  Aryan  home,  for,  as  pointed  out  in  chap,  vii, 
they  were  prominent  among  the  Persians  also.  Mitra 
was  a  sun-god;  Varuna  probably  a  sky-god.2  Mitra  is 
in  the  Veda  almost  submerged  as  a  companion  of  Varuna. 
Only  one  hymn  is  addressed  to  Mitra  alone.  Varuna, 
though  addressed  in  far  fewer  hymns  than  Indra,  Agni, 
or  Soma,  is  next  to  Indra  the  greatest  of  the  Vedic  gods. 

1  Rig-Veda,  X,  119. 

» See,  e.g.,  Rig-Veda,  VII,  86-89. 


146  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

He  was  thought  to  be  the  upholder  of  the  physical  and 
moral  universe.  The  hymns  addressed  to  him  are  more 
devout  and  ethical  than  any  others  in  the  Veda  and 
approach  more  nearly  the  strains  of  the  Hebrew  Psalter. 
His  omniscience  is  a  favorite  theme.  He  witnesses  the 
truth  or  falsehood  of  men.  No  creature  can  wink  with- 
out him.1 

Another  sky-god,  Dyaush  pitar,  "father  Sky," 
appears  to  go  back  to  pre-Indian  days.  Both  his  name 
and  epithet  are  philologically  identical  with  the  Greek 
Zeus  pater,  the  Latin  Diespiter,  or  Jupiter.  The  personi- 
fication of  the  sky  as  a  god  is  shown  by  these  correspond- 
ences to  go  back  to  primitive  Indo-European  times.  In 
the  Vedas,  Dyaush  is  employed  both  as  the  name  of  the 
god  and  as  the  word  for  sky.  The  origin  of  the  god  is 
thus  quite  transparent. 

Quite  as  old  as  Dyaush  is  his  daughter  Ushas,  the 
Dawn,  identical  with  the  Greek  Eos  (or  Heds),  and  the 
Latin  Aurora.  Like  that  of  her  father,  the  origin  of 
the  deity  was  always  clear,  and  the  beauty  of  the  dawn 
inspired  the  Vedic  poets  to  produce  some  of  their  most 
charming  creations.3 

The  Agvins,  or  heavenly  twins,  who  correspond  to  the 
Dioskouroi  of  Greek  mythology,  were  also  probably  pre- 
historic. They,  like  Ushas,  were  the  children  of  Dyaush 
pitar.  It  is  not  certain  whether  they  were  personifica- 
tions of  the  morning  and  evening  star,  or  of  the  sun 
and  moon,  or  of  the  twilight,  half-light,  half-dark. 
In  the  Vedas  they  are  the  succorers  who  aid  those  in 
trouble. 

1  See,  for  example,  Rig- Veda,  VII,  89. 
1  Ibid.,  1, 113. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  147 

PrithivT  matar,  or  "Mother  Earth,"  who  is  repre- 
sented as  the  wife  of  Dyaush  pitar,  is  perhaps  also  as 
primitive  as  he.  Only  one  separate  hymn  is  addressed 
to  her  in  the  Rig- Veda,  and  even  in  that  reference  is 
made  to  her  heavenly  spouse. 

Another  god  that  would  seem  to  have  originated 
before  the  separation  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Indian 
Aryans  from  the  Persians  was  Soma,  the  Persian  Haoma. 
In  the  Yasna,2  Haoma  was  an  angel  with  whom  Zoroaster 
once  conversed.  Soma  was  at  once  a  plant  and  an 
intoxicating  drink;  it  also  became  a  god.  In  both  Veda 
and  Avesta  it  is  described  as  dwelling  or  growing  on  a 
mountain.  Its  true  abode  was  thought  to  be  in  heaven, 
whence  it  was  brought  down  to  earth.  Its  exhilarating 
power  led  to  the  belief  that  it  was  a  drink  that  bestows 
everlasting  life.  From  it  the  gods  themselves  were 
thought  to  gain  their  immortality.  Naturally  large 
quantities  of  soma  were  employed  in  the  ritual;  gods  set 
men  the  example  of  drunkenness.  It  is  a  somewhat  sad 
comment  on  Vedic  morals,  but  others,  as,  for  example, 
the  Babylonians,  believed  that  their  gods  were  not  above 
drunkenness,3  even  if  they  did  not  deify  drink.  In  the 
latest  hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda,  Soma  is  somewhat 
obscurely  identified  with  the  moon. 

The  ancient  people  of  India  manifested  a  strong  bent 
toward  the  multiplication  of  gods  through  the  personi- 
fication of  the  powers  of  nature,  and  the  multiplication 
of  deities  through  the  personification  of  different  epithets 
of  the  same  god.  By  these  means  several  deities  were 

1  Rig-Veda,  V,  84.    Prithivi  is  literally  "  the  Broad  One." 

*  Yasna  ix,  1-16. 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  p.  241. 


148  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

added  to  the  pantheon  after  the  migration  into  India. 
Thus  in  the  Vedas  there  are  in  addition  to  Mitra  four 
sun-gods:  Surya,  Savitar,  Pushan,  and  Vishnu.  In  the 
Vedas,  Vishnu  is  not  one  of  the  most  important  gods, 
though  he  became  such  in  later  Hinduism.  Similar  per- 
sonifications produced  Vata  or  Vayu,  the  wind-god,  Par- 
janya,  the  rain-god,  and  Rudra,  the  storm-god.  In  the 
Vedas,  Rudra  is  a  simple  storm-god  of  no  very  great 
prominence.  In  Hinduism  he  assumed  a  different  rdle. 
A  group  of  storm-gods,  indefinite  in  number,  to  whom 
many  hymns  in  the  Rig-Veda  are  addressed,  is  the 
Maruts.  The  terrific  force  of  storms  in  India  led  to  the 
belief  that  there  were  many  such  spirits,  and  magnified 
their  terrifying  powers. 

The  important  Vedic  gods  have  been  classified  as: 

Celestial  gods:  Dyaush  pitar,  Varuna,  Mitra,  Surya, 
Savitar,  Pushan,  Vishnu,  Ushas,  the  Acvins,  and  the 
Adityas,  frequently  associated  with  Varuna  and  Mitra. 

Atmospheric  gods:  Vata  or  Vayu,  Indra  (who  is  fre- 
quently represented  as  a  kind  of  storm-god),  Parjanya, 
Rudra,  and  the  Maruts. 

Terrestrial  gods:  Prithivi,  Agni,  and  Soma. 

138.  Cosmogony. — In  the  earlier  hymns  of  the  Rig- 
Veda  creation  is  referred  to  as  an  act  of  natural  genera- 
tion.1 In  the  later  strata  of  the  Rig- Veda  we  find  the 
idea  of  a  creator,  or  the  material  of  creation,  distinct 
from  all  the  gods  and  superior  to  them.  This  creator  is 
given  various  names,  Prajapati  being  one  of  the  most 
important.  He  was  in  reality  a  huge  man,  whom  the 
gods  cut  up  as  though  he  were  a  sacrifice,  and  from  the 
parts  made  the  various  portions  of  the  universe.  His 

1  Rig-Veda,  IV,  2,  2,  and  III,  4,  10. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  149 

head  became  the  sky,  his  feet  the  earth,  his  navel  the 
air,  while  from  his  eye  sprang  the  sun,  from  his  mind  the 
moon,  and  from  his  breath  the  wind.1 

139.  The  ritual  and  its  purpose. — The  hymns  and 
prayers  of  the  Veda  were  composed  to  accompany  the 
sacrifices  which  were  offered  to  the  gods.  These  con- 
sisted of  such  viands  as  the  worshipers  regarded  as 
delicious  or  necessary.  Ghee,  or  melted  butter,  and 
soma  were  prominent  elements  in  them.  The  purpose 
of  the  offerings  was  to  propitiate  the  gods  and  bring 
them  near.  Thus  one  hymn  prays:2 

May  Varuna,  Mitra,  and  Aryaman,  triumphant  with  riches  (?), 
sit  on  our  sacrificial  grass  as  they  did  on  Manu's! 

In  the  earliest  time  the  sacrifices  were  offered  by  the 
heads  of  families,  and  chieftains  offered  their  own 
sacrifices.  There  were  no  temples  and  no  permanently 
holy  places.  A  spot  was  chosen  for  a  sacrifice  and  con- 
secrated for  the  occasion.  When  the  sacrifice  was  com- 
pleted, the  place  became  again  as  other  places.  Before 
the  end  of  the  Vedic  period,  through  a  natural  differen- 
tiation of  duties,  certain  men  had  assumed  the  function 
of  the  priesthood,  and  others  had  acquiesced  in  the 
arrangement.  It  thus  happened  that  kings  often  em- 
ployed others  to  officiate  at  sacrifices  offered  by  them. 
Nearly  all  the  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda  appear  to  have 
been  written  by  such  priests,  who  had  a  pecuniary 
interest  in  the  sacrifice,  and  who  employed  their  poetry, 
not  only  to  praise  the  god  or  gods,  but  to  impress  the 
king  with  the  desirability  of  liberally  rewarding  the 
priest.  It  thus  happens  that  most  frank  appeals  for 

1  Rig-Veda,  X,  90.  •  Ibid.,  I,  26,  4. 


ISO  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

baksheesh,  or  a  gift,  are  mingled  by  the  singers  with 
beautiful  descriptions  of  the  gods,  and  with  genuine 
religious  appeals.  Dakshina  is  the  Sanskrit  term  for 
"sacrificial  fee."  In  the  following  translations  by 
Bloomfield1  it  is  rendered  "baksheesh." 

Up  the  shining  strands  of  Dawn  have  risen, 

Like  unto  glittering  waves  of  water! 

All  paths  prepareth  she  that  they  may  be  easily  traversed; 

Liberal  goddess,  kind,  she  hath  become  baksheesh. 

And  again:2 

Baksheesh's  roomy  chariot  hath  been  harnessed, 
And  the  immortal  gods  have  mounted  on  it, 
The  friendly  dawn,  wide-spread,  from  out  of  darkness 
Has  risen  up  to  care  for  the  abode  of  mortals. 

The  mighty  goddess  rose  before  all  creatures, 
She  wins  the  booty  and  always  conquers  riches; 
The  dawn  looks  forth,  young  and  reviving  ever, 
She  came  the  first  here  to  our  morning  offering. 

For  a  time  so  early  the  poetry  is  beautiful.  As  Bloom- 
field  remarks:  "Never  has  sacrifice  had  such  genuine 
poetry  to  serve  it.  But  the  reverse  of  the  coin  is  that 
never  has  poetic  endowment  strayed  so  far  from  whole- 
some theme  as  to  fritter  itself  away  upon  the  ancient 
hocus-pocus  of  the  fire  priest  and  the  medicine-man." 

140.  Vedic  salvation. — Notwithstanding  that  the 
priests  made  the  ritual  and  the  poetry  fill  their  own 
pockets,  the  Veda  voices  many  an  appeal  for  salvation 
as  the  people  of  that  time  understood  salvation.  They 
desired  to  be  healthy  and  prosperous;  to  have  good 
crops;  that  storms  might  not  devastate,  and  to  have 

1  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  69. 
1  Bloomfield,  op.  tit.,  p.  71. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  151 

long  life.  One  hymn  appeals  to  Varuna,  the  god  of 
justice,  thus:1 

May  I  not  yet,  King  Varuna, 
Go  down  into  the  house  of  clay: 
Have  mercy,  spare  me,  mighty  Lord. 

Thirst  has  come  on  thy  worshiper, 
Though  standing  in  waters'  midst :' 
Have  mercy,  spare  me,  mighty  Lord. 

O  Varuna,  whatever  the  offence  may  be 
That  we  as  men  commit  against  the  heavenly  folk 
When  through  our  want  of  thought  we  violate  thy  laws, 
Chastise  us  not,  0  God,  for  that  iniquity. 

Such  an  appeal  presupposes  a  god  that,  though  just,  is 
merciful.  There  is  no  hint  that  he  needed  an  atoning 
sacrifice  to  change  his  attitude  toward  the  worshiper, 
though  another  hymn  implies  that  he  may  exact  from  the 
sinner  atoning  suffering.  It  runs  :3 

We  ascribe  to  thee  honor  from  of  old, 
Now  and  in  future,  Varuna,  thou  mighty  one; 
Upon  thee  we  rest  as  upon  a  firm  rock, 
Infallible  one,  the  eternal  laws. 

Take  my  peculiar  misdeed  from  me, 

Let  me  not,  O  King,  expiate  a  sin  unknown; 

Should  yet  many  brilliant  mornings  dawn, 

On  them,  O  Varuna,  thou  wouldst  lead  us  alive. 

141.  Heaven  and  hell. — In  the  Vedas,  Yama4  was 
the  god  of  death.    He  was  king  of  the  regions  of  the 

1  Translated  by  Macdonell,  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  77. 

*  A  reference  to  dropsy,  with  which  Varuna  was  thought  to  afflict 
sinners,  according  to  Macdonell. 

'Translated  from  the  German  of  Grossman's  Rig-Veda  (Leipzig, 
1876),  II,  28,  9,  10. 

*  Yama  was  probably  a  part  of  primitive  Aryan  mythology,  since 
he  appears  in  the  Avesta  as  Yima. 


152  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

departed,  whether  they  had  been  good  or  bad.  The 
poets  of  the  Rig- Veda  have,  however,  little  to  say  about 
the  after-life,  and  that  little  is  vague.  In  Rig- Veda,  V, 
55,4,  the  worshipers  yearn  for  immortality,  but  whether 
it  is  immortality  on  the  earth  or  in  some  other  abode  is 
not  told.  In  Rig- Veda,  X,  14,  i,  a  hymn  devoted  to 
funeral  obsequies,  Yama  is  celebrated  as  the  god  who 
first  spied  out  a  path  to  another  world.  That  other 
world  was,  Sanskrit  scholars  think,  in  heaven.  The 
dead  are  addressed  thus:1 

Run  on  thy  path  straight  forward  past  the  two  dogs, 
The  sons  of  Sarama,  four-eyed  and  brindled, 
Draw  near  thereafter  to  the  bounteous  fathers, 
Who  revel  on  in  company  with  Yama. 

In  the  Atharva-Veda  there  is  a  definite  belief  in  a  pit  of 
black  darkness  in  the  earth  beneath,  into  which  the 
wicked  are  to  be  hurled,2  though  the  conditions  which 
prevail  there  are  only  vaguely  described.  Evidence  is 
also  afforded  that  the  good  were  taken  to  a  place  of 
happiness.  In  a  charm  against  dropsy  is  the  prayer:3 

Lift  from  us,  O  Varuna,  the  uppermost  fetter,  take  down  the 
nethermost,  loosen  the  middlemost!  Then  shall  we,  O  Aditya, 
in  thy  law,  exempt  from  guilt,  live  in  freedom!  Loosen  from  us, 
O  Varuna,  all  fetters,  the  uppermost,  the  nethermost,  and  those 
imposed  by  Varuna!  Evil  dreams  and  misfortune  drive  away 
from  us:  then  may  we  go  to  the  world  of  the  pious! 

In  later  literature,  the  Upanishads  and  the  epic  of  the 
Mahabharata,  there  are  clear  traces  of  an  Indian  belief 

1  Rig-Veda,  X,  14,  10,  translated  by  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  p.  118. 

*  See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XLII,  p.  191,  vs.  49;  p.  211,  vs.  32; 

p.  222,  VS.  IO. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  12  (VII,  3,4). 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  1.53 

in  a  hell  and  a  heaven.1  Because  the  rewards  of  heaven 
were  of  a  material  nature,  the  thinkers  of  the  Upanishads 
frown  upon  the  hope  of  heaven  as  unworthy  of  a 
philosopher.2 

142.  Magic  and  demonology. — In  its  main  contents 
the  Atharva-Veda  is  more  superstitious  than  the  Rig- 
Veda.     It  represents  the  popular  beliefs  rather  than 
those  of  the  more  intelligent.    It  betrays  a  belief  in  the 
existence  of  many  demons,  and  contains  many  charms 
by  which  it  was  supposed  their  attacks  could  be  warded 
off.    It  was  compiled  later  than  the  Rig- Veda,  and 
where  it  reflects  the  conceptions  entertained  of  the 
higher  gods  they  are  often  more  advanced  than  those  of 
the  Rig-Veda.     Some  of  its  charms  against  the  demons 
of  sickness  originated  perhaps  before  the  Indo-Europeans 
separated,  for  they  agree  to  some  extent  in  content  as 
well  as  in  purpose  with  certain  old  German,  Lettic,  and 
Russian  charms.3    While  parts  of  the  Atharva-Veda 
clearly  developed  in  India,  it  reveals  to  us  the  fact  that  a 
belief  in  numerous  demons,  and  a  magic  art  believed  to 
be  potent  against  them,  existed  through  the  entire  period 
of  Vedic  development. 

143.  The  Brahmanas,  which  probably  began  to  be 
composed  as  early  as  800  B.C.  in  prose,  represent  a  theo- 
logical transition.    The  Aryan  people  had  now  been  long 
exposed  to  the  Indian  climate,  had  occupied,  in  addition 
to  their  original  territory,  the  valley  of  the  Ganges  hi 
which  the  climate  was  more  depressing,  and  had,  inde- 
pendently of  climate,  reached  a  more  mature  period  of 

'See  Hopkins,  The  GreatEpic  of  India  (New  York,  1901),  pp.  184-86. 
*  See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XV,  p.  30,  vs.  10, 
»  See  Macdonell,  op.  fit.,  pp.  185  ff. 


154  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

thought.  In  the  Brahmanas,  too,  we  have  evidence  that 
the  fluid  society  of  the  time  of  the  Rig-Veda  had  crystal- 
lized into  the  four  castes:  the  Brahman,  or  priestly  class, 
who  now  became  the  real  rulers;  the  Rajanya  or  Kshat- 
riya,  the  warrior  class;  the  Vaisya,  the  agricultural  class, 
and  the  Sudra  or  serf  caste.  While  most  of  the  Brah- 
manas are  occupied  with  practical  sacrificial  directions, 
others  undertake  to  explain  the  meaning  of  the  ritual. 
A  few  passages  indicate  that  the  more  thoughtful  had 
passed  beyond  the  stage  of  culture  in  which  gods  are 
believed  to  be  material  beings  and  animal  sacrifices  are 
thought  to  be  potent.  Religion  was  becoming  a  thing 
of  the  spirit;  they  were  questioning  the  utility  of  the 
ritual.  The  priests,  or  Brahmans,  as  they  were  called, 
had  a  pecuniary  interest  in  the  ritual,  which  to  many  was 
still  a  sacred  necessity.  This  pecuniary  interest  they 
sometimes  manifested  in  repulsive  ways.1  It  became 
the  duty  of  the  Brahmans,  however,  to  explain  to  the 
worshipers  the  spiritual  significance  of  the  time-honored 
material  ceremonies.  For  example,  certain  sacrifices  by 
their  burning  took  the  sacrificer  up  to  the  god-world; 
others  by  their  noise  made  him  master  of  the  father- 
world;  still  others  of  the  man-world.  Fire,  which  con- 
sumed the  sacrifice,  was  interpreted  as  speech.2  In  such 
ways  the  ritual  was  given  a  more  intellectual  and 
spiritual  interpretation.  In  the  Brahmanas  one  beholds 
the  minds  of  the  thinkers  traveling  away  from  old  beliefs 
toward  another  kind  of  religion. 

144.  The  Upanishads,  into  which  the  Brahmanas 
merge,  contain  the  essence  of  this  new  religion,  if  religion 

1  See,  for  example,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XV,  ni  ff. 
*  See  Bloomfield,  op.  cit.,  pp.  190  ff . 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  155 

it  can  be  called.     It  is  rather  a  philosophy  and  a  pessi- 
mistic one  at  that. 

(1)  The  heart  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Upanishads  is 
that  there  is  but  one  real  existence  in  the  universe,  the 
supreme  Brahman,  Atman,  or  Self.    All  creatures  are 
but  evanescent  manifestations  of  this  Self.     This  doc- 
trine is  reached  even  in  the  Brahmanas,  where   it  is 
taught  that  no  material  thing  may  be  loved  for  itself, 
but  for  the  Self  that  is  manifest  in  it: 

Verily,  a  husband  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  husband ; 
but  that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  a  husband  is  dear. 

Verily,  a  wife  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  a  wife;  but  that 
you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  a  wife  is  dear. 

Verily,  sons  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  sons;  but 
that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  sons  are  dear. 

Verily,  wealth  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  wealth;  but 
that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  wealth  is  dear. 

The  list  continues  and  enumerates  even  the  Vedas 
and  the  gods  as  things  that  are  to  be  loved  only  because 
of  the  Self.  A  monistic  doctrine  could  not  well  be  more 
pronounced. 

(2)  The  Upanishads  are  saturated  with  a  profound 
pessimism.     In  the  Vedas  there  is  manifest  a  genuine 
youthful  joy  in  life;   in  the  Upanishads,  on  the  other 
hand,  life  is  considered  an  evil.    The  essential  element  of 
life  is  desire;   desire  leads  to  pain;   he  only  reaches  the 
happiness  of  Brahman  or  the  Self  who  is  free  from  desire. 

(3)  Transmigration. — The  pessimism  of  the  Upani- 
shads is  intensified  by  the  belief  in  the  transmigration  of 
souls.     This  belief  is  not  peculiar  to  India;  we  hear  of 
it  in  Egypt,  among  the  Celts,  and  among  the  Greeks. 
Hindu  pessimism  made  it,  however,  especially  terrible. 


156  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

How  it  arose  in  India  is  not  known.  There  is  no  trace 
of  it  in  the  earlier  Vedic  literature.  It  was  possible  for 
any  man  in  the  animistic  stage  of  culture  to  reach  it, 
if  he  reflected  on  three  facts  in  which  all  men  believed: 
(a)  man  has  a  soul  separate  from  the  body;  (b) 
animals  have  souls;  (c)  all  souls  can  change  then- 
habitation. 

In  the  Vedic  literature  the  souls  of  the  departed  went 
to  the  realm  of  Yama;  in  later  tunes  to  heaven.  In  the 
Upanishads  belief  in  transmigration  is  grafted  on  to  this 
earlier  belief.  The  ascetic,  who  retires  to  the  forest,  goes 
at  death  on  the  path  of  the  gods  not  to  return.  Those 
who  practice  the  ordinary  callings  of  life  go  at  death  by 
the  path  of  the  fathers  to  the  moon,  where  they  remain 
until  the  influence  of  their  good  deeds  is  exhausted, 
when  they  return  by  the  same  path  and  are  reborn. 
They  may  be  reborn  as  a  person,  an  animal,  or  an  herb. 
If  their  conduct  has  been  good,  they  will  attain  to  some 
good  birth,  such  as  a  Brahman;  if  it  has  been  evil,  they 
will  quickly  attain  some  evil  birth,  such  as  a  dog,  or  a 
hog.1  The  influence  of  deeds  on  rebirth  was  called  the 
doctrine  of  Karma,  or  the  deed. 

(4)  The  abolition  of  desire  became,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  great  aim  of  the  believers  hi  this  philoso- 
phy. Desire  led  to  rebirth;  rebirth  led  to  suffering; 
and  so  the  wheel  of  pain  rolled  on  forever.  Salvation  lay 
in  the  abolition  of  desire.3 

It  has  been  frequently  held  that  this  pessimistic 
philosophy  is  the  natural  outcome  of  the  conditions  of 

'The  fullest  description  of  transmigration  is  in  the  Upanishad 
translated  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  I,  80  ff . 
*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XV,  p.  40,  vs.  2. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  VEDAS  157 

life  in  India,  which,  it  is  declared,  are  harder  than  those 
of  any  other  civilized  country.1 

145.  The  evolution  of  religious  thought  in  the  Vedic 
literature  is  most  striking.  The  Indians  reckon  the 
Upanishads  a  part  of  the  Vedas.  The  religion  of  the 
earliest  hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda  is  that  of  buoyant,  joyous 
youth;  that  of  the  Upanishads  is  the  religion  of  a  world- 
weary  people  for  whom  life  held  no  treasure  great 
enough  to  offset  its  agony.  This  was,  however,  only 
the  religion  of  philosophers.  As  will  appear  in  chap,  x, 
the  older  Vedic  religion  long  survived  among  the  common 
people. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  133:  cf.  Hunter's  "India"  in  Lodge's  History  of  the 
Nations,  chap,  i,  or  A.  A.  Macdonell,  History  of  Sanskrit 
Literature  (New  York,  1900),  pp.  130-44. 

On  sec.  134:  cf.  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  chaps,  iii,  vii,  and  viii;  or 
Bloomfield,  The  Religion  of  the  Veda  (New  York,  1908), 
PP-  17-59- 

On  sec.  135:    cf.  Bloomfield,  op.  cit.,  pp.  18  ff. 

On  sec.  136:  cf.  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  chap,  vi;  or  Hoernle  and 
Stark,  History  of  India  (Cuttack,  1904),  chaps,  ii  and  iii. 

On  sec.  137:  cf.  Bloomfield,  op.  cit.,  Lectures  HI  and  IV;  or 
Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  67-107. 

On  sec.  138:    cf.  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  131  ff. 

On  sec.  139:    cf.  Bloomfield,  op.  cit.,  Lecture  H. 

On  sec.  140:  cf.  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  116  ff.;  and  E.  W.  Hop- 
kins, The  Great  Epic  of  India  (New  York,  1901),  pp.  184  ff. 

On  sec.  142:    cf.  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  185-201. 

On  sees.  143,  144:    Bloomfield,  op.  cit.,  Lectures  V  and  VI. 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  chap.  ri. 
1  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  pp.  264  S. 


CHAPTER  IX 

BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM 

There  are  two  extremes,  0  Bhikkus,  which  the  man  who  has 
given  up  the  world  ought  not  to  follow — the  habitual  practice,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  those  things  whose  attraction  depends  upon  the 
passions,  and  especially  of  sensuality — a  low  and  pagan  way  (of 
seeking  satisfaction),  unworthy,  unprofitable,  and  fit  only  for  the 
worldly-minded — and  the  habitual  practice,  on  the  other  hand,  of 
asceticism  (or  self-mortification),  which  is  painful,  unworthy,  and 
unprofitable. 

There  is  a  middle  path,  O  Bhikkus,  avoiding  these  two 
extremes,  discovered  by  the  Tathagata1 — a  path  which  opens  the 
eyes,  and  bestows  understanding,  which  leads  to  peace  of  mind, 
to  the  higher  wisdom,  to  full  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana! 

What  is  the  middle  path,  O  Bhikkus,  avoiding  these  two 
extremes,  discovered  by  the  Tathagata — that  path  which  opens 
the  eyes,  and  bestows  understanding,  which  leads  to  peace  of  mind, 
to  the  higher  wisdom,  to  full  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana  ?  Verily! 
it  is  the  noble  eightfold  path;  that  is  to  say: 

Right  views; 

Right  aspirations; 

Right  speech; 

Right  conduct; 

Right  livelihood; 

Right  effort; 

Right  mindfulness;  and 

Right  contemplation. 

— Dhamma-Kakka-Ppavattana-sutta,*  2, 3,  4  (Buddhist). 

He  who  knows  wrath,  knows  pride;  he  who  knows  pride, 
knows  deceit;  he  who  knows  deceit,  knows  greed;  he  who  knows 
greed,  knows  love;  he  who  knows  love,  knows  hate;  he  who 

1  An  epithet  of  Buddha. 

1  That  is,  "The  Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness." 
158 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  159 

knows  hate,  knows  delusion;  he  who  knows  delusion,  knows  con- 
ception; he  who  knows  conception,  knows  birth;  he  who  knows 
birth,  knows  death;  he  who  knows  death,  knows  hell;  he  who 
knows  hell,  knows  animal  existence;  he  who  knows  animal 
existence,  knows  pain. 

Therefore,  a  wise  man  should  avoid  wrath,  pride,  deceit, 
greed,  love,  hate,  delusion,  conception,  birth,  death,  hell,  animal 
existence,  and  pain.  — Akaranga  Sutra,  I,  iv,  4  (Jain). 

146.  The  sources  of  Buddhism. — Buddhism  has  died 
in  India,  the  land  of  its  birth,  but  flourishes  in  many 
other  countries.  As  Gautama,  its  founder,  committed 
nothing  to  writing,  his  teachings  were  intrusted  to  tra- 
dition, and  were  not  written  down  until  later.  In  the 
course  of  the  centuries  much  has  been  added  to  the 
tradition.  From  Ceylon  and  neighboring  lands  have 
come  sacred  books  of  Buddhism  (the  Pitakas1)  in  the 
Pali  language,  estimated  by  Rhys  Davids  to  be  in  bulk 
about  four  times  that  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
These  consist  of  discourses  (Suttas)  attributed  to 
Gautama,  commentaries  upon  them,  wonderful  stories 
of  the  birth  of  the  Buddha  (Jatakas),  and  traditions  of 
his  life.2 

From  Nepal,  hi  the  north  of  India,  Buddhistic 
scriptures  have  also  come.  Among  these  are  Ashva- 
ghosha's  poem  on  the  life  of  Buddha,3  descriptions  of  the 
land  of  bliss,3  and  a  work  of  a  miscellaneous  character, 
entitled  The  Lotus  of  the  True  Law.  In  China  and 

'The  Sanskrit  for  "basket."  Used  as  the  name  of  a " collection " 
of  books. 

1  Pali  works  are  translated  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XI,  XVII, 
XX;  M.  P.  Grimblot,  Sept  suttas  pdlis  (Paris,  1876);  and  in  K.  E. 
Neumann,  Die  Reden  Gotamo  Buddho's  (Leipzig,  1896-1905). 

1  Nepalese  Buddhistic  scriptures  are  translated  in  the  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,  XXI  and  XLIX. 


160  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Tibet1  also  Ashvaghosha's  poem  on  the  life  of  Buddha 
has  been  found,  and  from  China2  many  other  Buddhist 
scriptures  have  come.  As  the  religion  spread  into  these 
countries  either  before  the  Christian  era,  or  at  the  very 
beginning  of  it,  the  existence  of  the  same  work  hi  Pah",  in 
the  Sanskrit  texts  of  Nepal,  in  Tibetan,  and  in  Chinese 
is  proof  of  a  high  antiquity.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  some  of  these  works  were  composed  less  than  a  cen- 
tury after  the  death  of  Gautama. 

147.  Life  of  Gautama  to  his  enlightenment. — In  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ  an  Aryan  tribe  named 
Sakyas  was  living  at  Kapilavastu  on  the  little  river 
Rohini  hi  the  valley  of  the  Ganges  about  130  miles  north 
of  Benares.  Forty  miles  to  the  north  rose  the  great 
peaks  of  the  Himalayas.  There  were  but  two  tribes  of 
Aryans  farther  east  than  the  Sakyas.  They  were  the 
Lichavis  and  the  Magadha.  Suddhodana,  the  raja  of 
the  Sakyas,  married  the  two  daughters  of  the  raja  of  the 
Koliyans,  a  neighboring  tribe.  The  elder  of  these  sisters 
became  the  mother  of  Gautama,  afterward  called  the 
Buddha,  about  567  B.C.3  At  the  time  of  his  birth  the 

1  Translations  from  Tibetan  sources  are  found  in  W.  W.  Rockhill, 
Life  of  the  Buddha  (London,  1884). 

*  Chinese  Buddhistic  sources  are  made  accessible  in  English  in 
Samuel  Beal,  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures  from  Chinese  (London,  1871), 
his  Abstract  of  Four  Lectures  on  Buddhistic  Literature  in  China  (London, 
1882),  and  his  translations  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XIX. 

»  This  date  is  obtained  in  the  following  way:  Asoka,  king  of  Western 
India,  who  says  in  his  inscriptions  that  he  was  converted  in  his  ninth 
year,  says  that  he  sent  missionaries  to  Antiochus  of  Syria,  Ptolemy  of 
Egypt,  Antigonus  of  Macedonia,  Alexander  of  Epirus,  and  Magas  of 
Cyrene  (see  V.  A.  Smith,  Asoka  [Oxford,  1901],  pp.  129-32).  These 
rulers  were  all  ruling  at  the  same  tune  only  between  262  and  258  B.C. 
(see  A.  J.  Edmunds,  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  4th  ed.  [Philadelphia 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  161 

mother  was  on  her  way  to  her  father's  house,  but  her  son 
was  born  under  some  tall  trees  in  a  pleasant  grove  called 
Lumbini.  The  mother  died  a  week  later,  and  the  child 
was  brought  up  by  her  childless  sister,  his  father's  other 
wife.  When  of  suitable  age  Gautama  was  married  to 
his  cousin,  the  daughter  of  the  raja  of  Koli.  A  later  tra- 
dition seems  to  show  that  Gautama  was  never  interested 
in  the  ordinary  occupations  of  a  prince,  but  it  is  certain 
that  in  his  twenty-ninth  year,  shortly  after  the  birth  of 
his  only  child,  he  abandoned  home  and  family  to  devote 
himself  to  the  study  of  religion.  This  was  in  accord 
with  an  ascetic  custom  then  already  old  in  India. 
Coeval  with  the  rise  of  the  Upanishad  philosophy,  there 
had  grown  up  a  body  of  ascetics  who  abandoned  the 
world,  lived  hi  poverty  hi  the  forests  or  mountains,  and 
begged  their  bread.  Gautama  is  said  to  have  been  led 
to  this  step  by  four  visions:  that  of  a  man  decrepit 
through  age,  a  sick  man,  a  decaying  corpse,  and  a  dig- 
nified hermit.  Before  leaving  home  he  stole  into  the 
chamber  of  his  sleeping  wife,  to  take  a  last  look  at  her 
and  his  child.  This  parting  the  Buddhists  call  the 
"Great  Renunciation." 

Gautama  traveled  eastward  beyond  the  Koliyan  ter- 
ritory with  his  horse  and  then  sent  back  his  horseman  to 
tell  his  wife  and  father  what  had  become  of  him.  He 

1908],  I,  58).  If  we  take  the  average  of  260  for  the  conversion  of  Asoka, 
bis  reign  began  in  269  B.C.  A  Ceylonese  tradition  states  that  Asoka  be- 
gan to  reign  218  years  after  Buddha  died.  This  tradition  is  followed  by 
leading  Buddhist  scholars;  it  fixes  Buddha's  death  in  487  B.C.  Tradi- 
tion also  has  it  that  Gautama  was  eighty  years  old  at  his  death.  If  so, 
his  birth  occurred  in  567  B.C.  On  this  reckoning  there  is  an  uncertainty 
of  four  years  as  to  the  accession  of  Asoka,  and  consequently  as  to  the 
birth  and  death  of  the  Buddha.  It  should  be  added  that  some  scholars 
discredit  the  Ceylonese  tradition. 


162  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

then  changed  his  princely  clothing  for  that  of  a  poor  man, 
cut  off  his  long  hair,  and  became  a  wandering  mendicant. 
He  first  went  southeastward  to  the  kingdom  of  Magadha, 
on  the  south  of  the  Ganges,  where  he  spent  some  time 
studying  the  philosophy  of  the  Brahmans  under  two 
distinguished  teachers.  The  Brahmans  insisted  that  the 
practice  of  penance  was  an  efficient  aid  in  gaining  super- 
human power  and  insight.  Gautama,  unsatisfied  by  his 
study  with  the  philosophers,  withdrew  with  five  faithful 
disciples  into  the  jungle,  and  for  six  years  gave  himself  to 
the  severest  asceticism,  until  he  had  wasted  to  a  shadow. 
Since  asceticism  was  in  India  a  sufficient  title  to  sanctity, 
his  fame  had  by  this  time  spread  far.  Gaining  no  peace, 
he  intensified  his  fasting  until  one  day  he  fell  in  a  swoon 
and  was  regarded  by  his  disciples  as  dead.  When  he 
came  to  himself  he  was  convinced  that  fasting  was  not 
the  way  to  his  goal;  he  therefore  abandoned  it.  Upon 
this  his  disciples  left  hirn  and  went  away  to  Benares. 

The  depression  that  Gautama  now  suffered  surpassed 
all  that  had  preceded.  Philosophy  and  asceticism,  the 
outward  helps  on  which  his  countrymen  leaned,  had 
both  failed  him.  Wandering  toward  the  river  Nairan- 
jara,  he  sat  down  one  morning  under  the  shade  of  a  ban- 
yan tree,  reviewed  the  years  of  his  life,  and  fought  with 
temptation  through  the  long  hours  of  the  day.  As  the 
day  ended  he  beheld  in  mental  vision  a  new  path.  He 
became  Buddha,  the  enlightened  one.  This  tree  was 
accordingly  called  the  Bo-tree,  or  tree  of  enlightenment. 
He  gained  peace  in  the  power  over  the  human  heart  of 
inward  culture,  and  of  love  to  others.  At  last  he  had 
found  certitude.  He  then  made  another  renunciation, 
greater  than  his  first;  he  renounced  asceticism  and 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  163 

penance.  Because  of  Gautama's  experience  the  Bo-tree 
has  become  to  Buddhists  almost  what  the  Cross  is  to 
Christians.  Gautama's  first  thought  was  to  announce 
his  religious  discovery  to  his  previous  philosophic 
teachers.  They,  however,  rejected  him,  but,  nothing 
daunted,  he  went  on  to  Benares  and  began  to  preach 
there.1 

148.  Gautama's  doctrine  was  really  not  a  religion, 
but  a  method  of  ethical  culture.  He  recognized  no 
supreme  God.  The  devas,  or  the  gods  of  the  old  religion, 
were  real  beings,  but  they  were,  like  men,  caught  in  the 
meshes  of  the  material  universe.  Gautama  proposed  no 
reformed  worship  of  these.  He  accepted  the  pessimistic 
point  of  view  which  is  reflected  in  the  Upanishads,  and 
the  doctrines  of  transmigration  and  of  Karma.  Salva- 
tion as  he  conceived  it  was  escape  from  the  pain  and  the 
necessity  of  continuous  reincarnation.  His  formula- 
tion of  this  thesis  he  called  the  four  "Noble  Truths": 
(i)  The  experiences  of  life — birth,  growth,  decay,  illness, 
death,  separation  from  objects  we  love,  hating  what  can- 
not be  avoided — are  all  sorrowful.  That  is,  such  states 
of  mind  as  are  inseparable  from  conscious  personality 
are  states  of  suffering  and  sorrow.  (2)  The  causes  of 
suffering  and  sorrow  are  the  action  of  the  outside  world 
on  the  senses.  These  objects  excite  a  craving,  or  a 
delight,  which  leads  to  action,  which  leads  hi  turn  to 
rebirth,  continued  existence,  and  misery.  (3)  The 
complete  subjugation  and  destruction  of  this  eager  thirst 
or  lust  is  that  which  causes  sorrow  to  cease.  (4)  The 
path  which  leads  to  the  cessation  of  sorrow  is  the  Noble 

xThis  statement  is  abridged  from  that  of  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids, 
Buddhism  (London,  1903),  pp.  25-45. 


1 64  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Eightfold  Path:  right  views  or  beliefs;  right  aspirations 
or  aims;  right  speech;  right  conduct  or  action;  right 
livelihood  (or  means  of  living) ;  right  effort  or  endeavor; 
right  mindfulness;  right  contemplation  or  meditation. 
Gautama  taught  that  one  who  followed  this  path  would 
become  an  Arahat — a  man  set  free  by  insight  from  the 
desire  for  material  or  immaterial  existence;  from  pride 
and  self-righteousness  and  ignorance.  As  one  traveled 
the  Noble  Eightfold  Path  on  the  way  to  Arahatship,  one 
would  conquer  ten  errors  or  evil  states  of  mind:  self- 
delusion;  doubt;  dependence  on  works;  sensuality  or 
bodily  passions;  ill-feeling  or  hatred;  love  of  life  on 
earth;  desire  for  life  in  heaven;  pride;  self -righteous- 
ness; ignorance. 

One  who  became  an  Arahat  had  attained  Nirvana,  a 
state  to  which  Buddhist  writers  devote  many  pages  of 
awe-struck  praise.  An  Arahat  was  not,  however,  a 
saved  soul,  for  Gautama  denied  the  reality  of  the  soul's 
existence.  The  soul,  he  held,  was  only  an  ensemble  of 
sensations,  desires,  and  fears.  Apart  from  these  it  has 
no  reality  any  more  than  a  chariot  has  reality  apart 
from  its  wheels,  axle,  pole,  and  body.  Denying  the 
reality  of  the  soul,  he  should  in  consistency  have  denied 
transmigration  also,  but  the  fascination  of  this  doctrine 
he  could  not  shake  off.  Though  there  was  no  soul  to 
migrate,  he  held  that  there  was  a  Karma — a  kind  of 
character  attained  through  what  one  had  done,  and 
according  to  this  character  one's  next  incarnation  would 
be  shaped.  Here  Gautama  agreed  with  the  philosophers 
of  the  Upanishads.  He  also  held  that  one  might  be  so 
good  as  to  attain  temporary  Arahatsbip  in  some  heaven 
without  attaining  Nirvana.  Such  a  person  would  dwell 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  165 

in  heaven  until  the  virtues  of  his  Karma  were  exhausted, 
and  would  then  be  compelled  to  begin  again  the  round 
of  incarnations. 

As  an  Arahat  was  not  a  soul,  so  Nirvana  was  not 
heaven.  It  is  rather1  the  extinction  of  that  sinful, 
grasping  condition  of  mind  and  heart  which  would  other- 
wise, according  to  the  great  mystery  of  Karma,  be  the 
cause  of  renewed  individual  existence.  It  is  the  same 
thing  as  a  sinless,  calm,  unconscious  state  of  mind.  It 
is  Buddhistic  holiness — a  holiness  of  perfect  peace,  good- 
ness, and  wisdom.  The  doctrines  of  Buddha,  though 
they  centered  one's  thought  on  himself,  gave  a  great 
impulse  to  ethical  living.  The  world's  tragedies  and  in- 
justices spring  from  the  selfish  desires  of  men  for  things. 
As  Buddhism  armed  to  destroy  this  deisre,  it  produced 
an  unselfish  morality  that  at  times  has  rivaled  that  of 
Christianity. 

149.  The  years  of  Gautama's  ministry. — When 
Gautama  arrived  at  Benares  he  went  to  the  Deer  Park 
or  Migadaya  Wood,  about  three  miles  north  of  the  city. 
Here  he  continued  to  teach  for  some  time.  Three 
months  later,  and  five  months  after  the  crisis  under  the 
Bo-tree,  he  called  together  his  disciples,  who  are  said 
already  to  have  been  about  sixty  in  number,  and  sent 
them  forth  to  preach.  During  the  rest  of  his  life 
Gautama  was  accustomed  to  travel  about  and  preach 
during  the  eight  pleasant  months  of  the  year.  During 
the  four  rainy  months  he  remained  in  one  place  and 
taught.  He  soon  returned  to  Rajagriha,  the  capital  of 
the  kingdom  of  Magadha,  where  Bimbisara,  the  king, 

'This  definition  is  taken  from  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  op.  tit.,  p.  m, 
a  book  to  which  the  writer  is  greatly  indebted. 


166  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

became  his  patron,  assigning  him  a  bamboo  grove,  in 
which  Gautama  spent  many  rainy  seasons.  The  tra- 
ditions tell  us  in  what  localities  he  traveled  for  about 
twenty  years  of  his  ministry,  but  we  have  not  space  to 
follow  the  details.1  He  died  at  the  age  of  eighty  at 
Kusinagara,  the  modern  Kasia,  from  a  fit  of  indigestion 
induced  by  eating  mushrooms. 

The  first  disciples  of  Buddha  gathered  about  him, 
leaving  all  and  becoming  an  order  of  mendicants.  He 
himself  was  the  leader  of  this  order.  The  order  was 
established,  not  because  Gautama  attached  any  value 
to  ascetic  practices  as  such,  but  because  he  held  that 
men  occupied  with  the  things  of  life  could  less  easily  so 
eradicate  desire  as  to  attain  Nirvana.  He  recognized 
also  the  desirability  of  encouraging  those  who  were  not 
ready  to  join  the  order  to  make  an  endeavor  to  enter 
upon  the  Noble  Eightfold  Path.  From  an  early  period 
in  his  ministry,  therefore,  a  lay  membership  was 
organized.  Indeed,  as  in  other  ascetic  orders  of  India, 
many  entered  this  order  temporarily.  The  two  types  of 
members  have  ever  since  characterized  Buddhism, 
though  the  wandering  mendicants  have  become  a 
settled,  celibate  clergy.  At  a  comparatively  early  period 
hi  his  ministry  the  Buddha  returned  to  Kapilavastu,  his 
birthplace,  when  his  wife  Yasodhara  and  his  son  Rahula 
were  converted  to  his  teaching.  His  son  joined  the  order 
at  once.  Later,  when  Gautama  organized  an  order  of 
female  mendicants,  Yasodhara  became  one  of  its  first 
members. 

150.  Buddhist  orders  and  laity. — When  one  joins 
the  Sangha,  or  Buddhist  order,  he  is  required  to  subscribe 

1  For  details  see  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  op.  cit.,  pp.  69  ff. 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  167 

to  no  creed.    In  one  part  of  the  ceremony  of  initiation 

he  says: 

I  go  for  refuge  to  the  Buddha. 
I  go  for  refuge  to  the  Law. 
I  go  for  refuge  to  the  Order. 

He  vows  not  to  destroy  life,  not  to  steal,  to  abstain  from 
social  impurity,  not  to  lie,  to  abstain  from  intoxicating 
drinks,  not  to  eat  at  forbidden  tunes,  to  abstain  from 
dancing,  singing,  music,  and  stage  plays,  not  to  use 
garlands,  scents,  unguents,  or  ornaments,  not  to  use  a 
high  or  broad  bed,  and  not  to  receive  gold  or  silver.1 

The  rules  of  the  order  are  very  elaborate.2  They 
define  four  faults  which  are  regarded  as  fatal  to  the 
status  of  a  regular  disciple  of  the  Buddha.  They  are: 
any  act  of  sexual  intercourse,  theft,  taking  human  life  or 
even  encouraging  anyone  to  self-destruction,  and  pre- 
tending to  knowledge  that  one  does  not  possess.  Next 
to  the  four  great  offenses  are  thirteen  that  deal  with 
"formalities."  Several  of  these  have  to  do  with  clean- 
ness and  uncleanness;  others  with  so  building  huts  that 
no  animal  may  be  inconvenienced  or  killed.  Other  rules 
deal  with  the  uses  of  robes,  rags,  bowls,  etc.,  and  restrict 
monks  to  the  use  of  certain  medicines.  The  Pacittiya 
rules,  which  are  ninety-two  in  number,  are  of  a  most 
miscellaneous  nature.  Five  are  directed  against  taking 
life.  A  monk  is  forbidden  to  dig,  lest  worms  should  be 
accidentally  killed.  Twenty  rules  guard  against  immor- 
ality; about  ten  are  directed  against  lying,  slander,  etc. 

1  See  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  op.  cit.,  p.  160. 

•Compare  for  a  more  elaborate  statement  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  162-73;  and  R.  S.  Copleston,  Buddhism  (London,  1892), 
chaps,  xiii,  xiv,  xviii,  and  xix. 


1 68  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

One  is  directed  against  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks. 
As  it  is  followed  by  several  against  indecorous  conduct, 
it  is  probable  that  drink  was  forbidden  because  it  led 
to  levity  and  a  lack  of  decorum.  Much  space  could  be 
devoted  to  the  rules  of  the  order,  which  are  very  elabo- 
rate, but  enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  their  char- 
acter. 

The  rules  for  the  nuns  contain  little  of  importance. 
They  were  required  to  follow  the  rules  for  monks  as  far  as 
they  were  applicable,  and  in  other  matters  to  follow  their 
own  judgment.  They  were  altogether  dependent  upon 
the  community  of  men.  They  had  to  go  to  the  monks 
for  instruction,  and  then*  acts  were  not  valid  unless  con- 
firmed by  the  monks. 

The  laity,  so  far  as  the  Buddhistic  community  was 
concerned,  were  really  outsiders.  Buddha's  teaching 
was  applicable  to  all  living  creatures  in  three  worlds — for 
gods,  men,  and  animals.  The  discipline  was,  however, 
for  human  beings.  In  order  to  adapt  the  rules  to  the 
laity,  some  of  the  requirements  were  modified.  A  lay- 
man is  not  called  to  celibacy,  but  is  required  to  be  faith- 
ful to  his  wife.  He  may  kill  animals  for  the  table,  though 
he  will  have  to  suffer  for  it  in  future  births.  He  need 
not  abstain  from  alcohol,  except  after  a  special  vow. 

151.  Early  history  of  Buddhism. — The  sources,  both 
Pah'  and  Sanskrit,  agree  that  immediately  after  Gau- 
tama's death  the  older  members  agreed  to  hold  a  council 
to  settle  the  rules  and  doctrines  of  the  order.  It  would 
seem  that  these  had  not  been  fully  determined  by  the 
Buddha  himself.  The  first  council  was  accordingly 
held  in  the  rainy  season,  or  the  season  was,  following  his 
death.  Five  hundred  members  attended  the  council. 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  169 

It  was  held  in  a  cave  near  Rajagriha,  which  had  been 
prepared  by  Ajatasatru,  king  of  Magadha.  It  is 
regarded  as  probable  by  Rhys  Davids  that  the  kernel  of 
the  later  sacred  books  of  Buddhism  dates  from  this  time. 
The  next  information  about  the  history  of  Buddhism 
concerns  the  Council  of  Vaisali,  which  was  held  about  one 
hundred  years  after  the  first  one.  Some  of  the  monks 
desired  this  council  to  adopt  what  are  known  as  the  ten 
indulgences,  among  which  was  the  permission  to  drink 
intoxicants,  if  they  looked  like  water,  and  to  receive  gold 
and  silver.  The  indulgences  were  condemned  by  the 
council,  and  a  schism  resulted.  Although  this  was  the 
first  open  schism,  others  occurred  later,  for  the  Ceylon 
chronicles  enumerate  eighteen  sects.  They  were  prob- 
ably not  sects  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term,  though 
they  formed  different  governments  and  lived  apart  from 
one  another. 

By  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Vaisali  the  kingdom 
of  Magadha  had  become  supreme  in  Eastern  India.  In 
325  B.C.  Alexander  the  Great  reached  the  most  easterly 
point  of  his  Indian  invasion,  and  at  the  request  of  his  sol- 
diery abandoned  the  invasion  of  the  valley  of  the  Ganges. 
Before  he  turned  back,  his  camp  was  visited  by  Chan- 
dragupta,  a  low-caste  rebel  from  Magadha,  whom  Alex- 
ander spurned.  Later,  when  Nanda,  king  of  Magadha, 
was  murdered,  Chandragupta  seized  his  throne,  and 
after  Alexander's  death  he  drove  the  Greeks  from  India 
and  established  an  empire  that  controlled  all  of  Central 
India.  He  ruled  from  322  to  298  B.C.  His  capital  was 
at  Pataliputra  at  the  junction  of  the  Ganges  and  Gandak 
rivers.  Being  of  low  caste,  Chandragupta  apparently 
favored  Buddhism.  His  son  Bindusara  succeeded  him. 


170  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Bindusara  was  followed  some  time  between  271  and 
267  B.C.  by  his  son  Piyadasi,  or  Asoka,  who  was  in 
his  ninth  year  converted  to  Buddhism,  and  became  the 
Constantine  of  that  faith.  He  enjoined  its  precepts  upon 
his  subjects,  inscribing  them  upon  rocks  in  many  parts 
of  the  country,  and  sent  missionaries  to  foreign  lands  to 
preach  it.  Some  of  these  missionaries  visited  Syria, 
Egypt,  Macedonia,  Epirus,  and  Cyrene.  In  his  eight- 
eenth year  Asoka  held  a  council  at  Patna  and  appointed 
a  chief  minister  of  religion,  whose  duty  it  was  to  preserve 
the  purity  of  religion  and  see  that  subject  races  were 
properly  treated.  Asoka's  edicts  show  that,  along  with 
many  other  good  works,  he  established  hospitals  even  in 
foreign  lands  for  the  care  of  men  and  animals.  The  most 
important  of  Asoka's  missionary  enterprises  was  the 
mission  sent  to  Ceylon,  for  it  resulted  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  Buddhism  into  that  country,  where  it  has  flour- 
ished with  especial  vigor.  Here  in  the  fifth  century 
A.D.  Buddhaghosa,  the  famous  monk  who  compiled 
an  encyclopedia  of  Buddhist  doctrine,  lived.  Asoka's 
efforts  seem  also  to  have  introduced  Buddhism  into 
Kashmere — at  least  it  reached  that  part  of  India  in  his 
century. 

Space  forbids  us  to  follow  in  detail  the  later  history 
of  Buddhism.  About  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era 
it  found  its  way  into  China.  Probably  even  earlier  it 
had  become  naturalized  in  Tibet.  From  China  it  spread 
to  Korea  and  Japan.  In  the  fifth  century  A.D.  Buddhism 
was  adopted  in  Burmah,  and  in  the  seventh  century  in 
Siam.  In  India  proper  it  was  already  decadent  in  the 
sixth  century  A.D.,  when  the  Chinese  pilgrim  Yuan 
Chwang  visited  the  country.  It  lingered  on,  however, 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  171 

till  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  when  it  was  ex- 
pelled by  Hinduism  and  Mohammedanism.  Although  it 
has  practically  vanished  from  the  land  of  its  birth,  it  is 
estimated  that  there  are  today  perhaps  500,000,000 
Buddhists  in  the  world.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  religion 
of  about  one-third  of  the  human  race! 

152.  The  transformation  of  Buddhism. — Buddhism, 
which  remained  comparatively  pure  until  the  time  of 
Asoka,  has  in  the  centuries  since  been  greatly  trans- 
formed. Gautama  himself  recognized  no  God,  but  quite 
early  in  its  development  Buddhism  had  made  Vn'm  a  god. 
He  is  regarded  as  omniscient  and  as  perfectly  sinless. 
Soon  the  doctrine  arose  that  he  had  no  earthly  father; 
that  he  descended  of  his  own  accord  from  his  throne  in 
heaven  into  the  womb  of  his  mother,  who  was  the  purest 
of  the  daughters  of  men.  After  his  birth  the  very  trees 
bent  of  their  own  accord  over  him,  and  in  many  miracu- 
lous ways  he  gave  evidence  of  his  heavenly  character. 
Around  this  conception  of  him  all  the  marvels  of  the 
Jatakas,  or  Birth  Stories,  grew  up.  These  were  hi  part 
the  outgrowth  of  a  certain  doctrine  which,  it  is  alleged, 
Gautama  taught.  According  to  this  doctrine  twenty- 
four  Buddhas  had  appeared  before  him.  After  the  death 
of  each  one  the  world  grew  gradually  worse  until  a  new 
one  appeared.  After  five  thousand  years  the  religion 
revealed  to  Gautama  under  the  Bo-tree  will  become  so 
corrupt  that  a  new  Buddha,  Buddha  Maitreya,  the 
Buddha  of  kindness,  will  appear  and  again  open  to 
men  the  door  to  Nirvana.  Thus  the  pre-existent 
Buddha,  who  had  appeared  many  times,  newly  rein- 
carnated in  Gautama,  took  the  place  of  a  God  in  the 
religion. 


172  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Along  with  this  development  many  beautiful  stories 
and  parables  were  incorporated  in  the  Buddhist  scriptures 
and  attributed  to  Gautama.  Some  of  these,  like  the 
story  of  the  penitent  and  impenitent  robber,1  and  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son,2  somewhat  resemble  passages 
in  the  Gospels.  It  has  been  maintained  that  Christianity 
borrowed  these  from  Buddhism,  and  that  Buddhism 
borrowed,  them  from  Christianity.  Albert  J.  Edmunds 
and  Garbe  earnestly  advocate  the  indebtedness  of 
Christianity  to  Buddhism.3  Such  borrowing  has  not 
yet  been  fully  proved,  though  shown  to  have  been 
possible.  One  form  of  the  legend  of  the  Buddha 
became,  however,  so  popular  that  it  was  given  a 
Christian  form,  and,  as  St.  Josaphat,  the  Buddha  is 
revered  as  a  Christian  saint  on  the  twenty-seventh 
of  November! 

The  development  which  made  Buddha  a  god  is  known 
as  Mahayana  Buddhism,  or  Buddhism  of  the  Great 
Vehicle.  The  Little  Vehicle,  or  Hinayana,  accepted  in 
Ceylon,  Siam,  and  Burma,  represented  Gautama  as  a 
simple  teacher  who  uttered  elementary  truths  easily 
comprehended  by  all.4  This,  as  already  noted,  did  not 
long  satisfy.  In  the  Great  Vehicle  Gautama's  activity 
was  divided  into  five  periods.  In  the  first  his  doctrine 
proved  too  advanced  for  the  multitude,  hence  there 
followed  a  period  of  twelve  years  called  the  Deer  Park. 
In  this  period  Gautama  set  forth  the  doctrines  of  the 

1  Albert  J.  Edmunds,  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  II,  14  ff. 
3  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXI,  99-106;    Vol.  X  of  American 
edition. 

'  See  Edmunds'  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  II,  14  ff. 
-  See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XIX,  168-79. 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  173 

Little  Vehicle  as  an  accommodation  to  human  infirmity. 
The  third  was  a  period  of  expansion,  when  he  preached 
to  Boddhisattwas  in  ten  regions  a  doctrine  of  greater 
profundity.  This  was  only  preliminary  to  a  fourth 
period  in  which  Gautama  taught  the  doctrine  of  the 
Absolute,  "which  is  the  negation  of  all  that  is  finite,  and 
can  be  neither  described  nor  comprehended  by  the  ordi- 
nary processes  of  the  intellect."  In  the  fifth  period  he 
set  forth  more  fully  the  nature  of  the  Absolute,  which 
constitutes  and  pervades  all  things,  but  which  becomes 
incarnate  in  successive  Buddhas.  This  last  period  is 
called  Nirvana.1  Thus  in  the  Greater  Vehicle  Gautama 
was  exalted  to  an  incarnation  of  the  Absolute.  Along 
with  the  transformation  of  the  conception  there  de- 
veloped a  transformation  of  the  means  of  grace.  In 
early  Buddhism  the  efforts  of  each  individual  constituted 
his  means  of  grace;  in  the  Mahayana  system  great  stress 
is  laid  upon  prayer.  The  Absolute  is  merciful  and  may 
be  appealed  to. 

In  Tibet  and  Nepal  the  development  of  this  system 
has  taken  a  peculiar  form.  According  to  this  view  there 
were  three  Buddhas  before  Gautama.  The  Buddha 
Maitreya,  who  will  finally  bring  in  the  Golden  Age,  will 
be  the  fifth.  Each  of  these  mortal  Buddhas  has  his 
counterpart  in  the  mystic  world  free  from  the  corrupting 
influences  of  material  life.  These  are  called  Dhyani 
Buddhas.  Each  one  of  the  five  has  a  Boddhisattwa — a 
being,  either  man,  angel,  or  animal,  whose  Karma  is 
capable  of  producing  other  beings  in  a  continually 
ascending  scale  of  goodness  until  it  becomes  a  Buddha. 

1  Compare  the  statement  in  G.  W.  Knox,  The  Development  of 
Religion  in  Japan  (New  York,  1907),  pp.  95  f. 


174  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

According  to  this  scheme  the  fifteen  Buddhas  are  as 
follows: 

Dhydni  Buddhas          Boddhisattwas  Human  Buddhas 


Vairochana 

Samanta-bhadra 

Kraku-chanda 

Akshobya 

Vajrapani 

Kanaka-muni 

Ratna-sambhava 

Ratnapani 

Kasyapa 

Amitabha 

Padmapani  (or 

Gautama 

Avalokitesvara) 

Amogasiddha 

Visvapani 

Maitreya 

Some  of  these,  like  Avalokitesvara,  "the  lord  that 
looks  down  from  on  high,"  are  metaphysical  inventions, 
but  Vajrapani,  "the  thunderbolt  handed,"  or  "hurler  of 
the  thunderbolt,"  is  no  other  than  the  Vedic  god  Indra, 
under  one  of  his  epithets.  Thus  the  old  religion  has 
crept  back  into  Gautama's  system  of  ethical  culture! 
Another  infusion  from  the  old  religion  is  the  belief  in 
heaven  and  hell.  This  belief  is  interwoven  with  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration.  In  heaven  the  good,  who  are 
not  good  enough  for  Nirvana,  rest  awhile  before  they  are 
again  incarnated.  Hell  is  similarly  a  temporary  abiding- 
place  for  the  wicked. 

In  Tibet  alone  of  Buddhist  countries  the  Buddhist 
order  has  developed  into  a  hierarchy.  Avalokitesvara  is 
conceived  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Buddha  who  is  present 
with  his  church.  He  is  supposed  to  be  incarnate  in  the 
Dalai  Lama,  the  infallible  Head  of  the  Church.  The 
temples  in  Buddhist  countries  are  supposed  to  be  places 
for  meditation  and  reading  of  the  sacred  books  of  Bud- 
dhism. There  are  altars  on  which  incense  is  burned  to 
the  statue  of  the  Buddha.  Prayers  are  also  said  or 
chanted  in  parts  of  the  Buddhist  world.  In  Tibet  the 
mechanical  saying  of  prayers  is  thought  to  be  a  virtue. 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  175 

Even  their  presentation  in  written  form  is  of  value, 
hence  prayer  wheels  have  been  invented,  to  which 
written  prayers  are  attached.  Every  time  the  wheel, 
turned  by  wind  or  water,  bears  the  prayer  upward 
merit  accrues  to  the  devotee!  In  Nepal  the  early 
discipline  of  the  order  has  so  far  relaxed  that  there  are 
monasteries  swarming  with  married  monks.1 

153.  The  founder  of  Jainism,  Vardhamana  or  Maha- 
vira,  was  born  near  Vaisali,  the  modern  Besarh,2  in  the 
valley  of  the  Ganges.    His  father  appears  to  have  been 
a  petty  chieftain.     Mahavira  lived  in  the  same  general 
period  as  Gautama,  but  probably  a  little  before  him, 
and  founded  a  system  of  ethical  culture  which  so  much 
resembles  Buddhism  in  some  points  that  it  has  at  times 
been  regarded  as  a  Buddhist  sect.    In  many  respects, 
however,  it  differs  strikingly  from  Buddhism.    Maha- 
vira, until  he  was  thirty  years  old,  lived  a  normal  life. 
He  became  an  ascetic  and  practiced  asceticism  for  twelve 
years,  when  he  received  enlightenment  and  became  the 
Jain,  or  the  Victorius  One.    He  then  founded  the  Jainist 
order  of  monks,  over  which  he  presided  until  his  death, 
when  he  was  seventy-two  years  old.3 

154.  Jainism,  like  Buddhism,  was  a  revolt  from  the 
Brahmanic  system.   With  reference  to  the  gods  Mahavira 
went  farther  than  Gautama.     Gautama  admitted  their 
existence,   but  denied   them  worship;    Mahavira  was 
thoroughly  skeptical  about  them.4    Like  Gautama,  he 

1 V.  A.  Smith,  Early  History  of  India  (Oxford,  1914),  p.  367. 
*See   Jacobi,  Sacred  Books  of  the    East,  XXII,  x,  xv;    and  A. 
Cunningham,  The  Ancient  Geography  of  India  (London,  1871),  p.  443. 
» Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXII,  269. 
4Ibid.,  p.  152. 


176  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

retained  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  and  of  Karma, 
but,  unlike  him,  he  held  with  many  Brahmans  to  the 
value  of  asceticism.  Notwithstanding  his  faith  in  trans- 
migration, he  still  retained  the  Vedic  doctrine  of  hell,  to 
which  the  wicked  went  between  births.  Mahavira  had 
practiced  ascetic  austerities  twelve  years  before  he 
became  victorious,  and  he  held  that  twelve  years  was  the 
appointed  time,  if  such  practices  were  to  be  efficacious. 
The  five  vows  taken  by  the  Jainist  monks  are  not  to 
kill  any  living  being,  not  to  tell  lies,  not  to  steal,  not  to 
indulge  in  sexual  pleasures,  and  to  renounce  all  attach- 
ments.1 These  are  in  many  respects  similar  to  the  vows 
of  the  Buddhist  monks,  but  Jacobi  has  made  it  probable 
that  both  are  influenced  more  by  earlier  Hindu  ascet- 
icism than  by  each  other.  Although  Mahavira  had  a 
very  poor  opinion  of  women,2  he  permitted  them  to  be- 
come ascetics.  His  rules  apply  to  nuns  as  well  as  to 
monks.  There  are  at  present  two  orders  of  Jain  monks, 
one  of  which  wears  clothes  and  admits  women,  while  the 
other  does  not  admit  women  and  goes  nude.3  Deliver- 
ance from  rebirth  is  to  be  attained  by  right  knowledge 
of  the  relation  between  spirit  and  non-spirit;  by  right 
intuition,  or  absolute  faith  in  the  Master  and  the  dec- 
larations of  the  sacred  texts;  and  by  the  right  practice 
of  the  virtues,  or  observance  of  the  five  vows  in  all  their 
details.  The  belief  that  it  is  wrong  to  kill  anything  leads 
the  Jains  to  the  most  absurd  tolerance  of  vermin.  At 
times  they  fear  to  move  or  to  breathe  freely  lest  they  kill 
some  of  the  small  insects  with  which  the  very  air  of  India 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXU,  202  ff. 

'Ibid.,  pp.  21,  48. 

3  E.  W.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India  (Boston,  1895),  p.  295. 


BUDDHISM  AND  JAINISM  177 

frequently  swarms.  In  almost  every  town  where  Jains 
live  animal  hospitals  abound.  One  at  Kutch  is  said  to 
have  contained  five  thousand  rats! 

The  followers  of  Mahavira  regard  him  as  a  pre- 
existent  being,  who  of  his  own  accord  was  born  of  his 
mother.  In  practice,  therefore,  they  accord  him  divine 
honors.  Hopkins  declares  that  a  religion  that  denies 
God,  worships  man,  and  nourishes  vermin  has  no  right 
to  exist!1  Its  one  virtue,  that  of  not  killing,  it  holds  in 
such  exaggerated  form  that  it  becomes  grotesque. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sees.  146-49:    cf.  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism  (London, 

1903),  chaps,  i-iv. 
On  sec.  150:    See  ibid.,  chaps,  v  and  vi;    and  R.  S.  Copleston, 

Buddhism  (London,  1892),  chaps,  xiii,  xiv,  xviii,  and  xix. 
On  sees.  151,  152:    cf.  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  op.  cit.,  chaps,  vii-ix. 
On  sees.  153,  154:    cf.   Hopkins,   Religions  of  India,  chap,   xii; 

S.  Stevenson,    The    Heart  of   Jainism   (Oxford  University 

Press,  1915) ;  and  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXII  (American 

ed.,  Vol.  X,  second  half). 

CLASS  B 
George  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I,  chap.  xii. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  297. 


CHAPTER  X 

HINDUISM 

The  Veda  is  the  source  of  the  sacred  law. — GAUTAMA*,  Insti- 
tutes of  the  Sacred  Law,  i,  i. 

There  are  four  castes — Brahmanas,  Kshatriyas,  Vaisyas,  and 
Sudras.  Amongst  these,  each  preceding  [caste]  is  superior  by 

birth  to  the  one  following To  serve  the  other  castes  is 

ordained  for  the  Sudra. — APASTAMBA,  Aphorisms,  I,  i,  1:4,  5,  8. 

There  are  four  orders,  viz.,  the  order  of  house-holders,  the 
order  of  students,  the  order  of  ascetics,  and  the  order  of  hermits 
hi  the  woods.  If  he  lives  in  all  these  four  according  to  the  rules, 
without  allowing  himself  to  be  disturbed,  he  will  obtain  salvation. 
— APASTAMBA,  Aphorisms,  II,  9,  21:1,  2. 

Heaven  is  their  reward,  if  they  speak  the  truth;  in  the  con- 
trary case  hell. — GAUTAMA,  Institutes,  xiii,  7. 

He  who  receives  a  (gift)  from  an  avaricious  lung  who  acts  hi 
opposition  to  the  treatises  goes  in  succession  to  these  twenty- 
one  hells. — Ordinances  of  Manu,  iv,  87. 

Leaving  his  good  deeds  to  his  loved  ones  and  his  evil  deeds 
to  his  enemies,  by  force  of  meditation  he  goes  to  the  eternal 
Brahma. — Ordinances  of  Manu,  vi,  79. 

All  this  depends  on  meditation,  whatsoever  has  been  declared ; 
for  no  one  who  knows  not  the  supreme  self  obtains  the  fruit  of  his 
deeds. — Ordinances  of  Manu,  vi,  82. 

And  consecrated  altar  built  and  raised  of  bricks  of  gold, 
Shone  hi  splendor  like  the  altar  Dasha  raised  hi  days  of  old, 
Eighteen  cubits  square  the  structure,  four  deep  layers  of  brick  in 

height, 
With  a  spacious  winged  triangle  like  an  eagle  hi  its  flight! 

1  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  founder  of  Buddhism. 
178 


HINDUISM  179 

Beasts  whose  flesh  is  pure  and  wholesome,  dwellers  of  the  lake 

and  sky, 
Priests  assigned  each  varied  offering  to  each  heavenly  power  on 

high. 

Bulls  of  various  breed  and  color,  steeds  of  mettle  true  and  tried, 
Other  creatures,  full  three  hundred,  to  the  many  stakes  were  tied. 

Birds  and  beasts  thus  immolated,  dressed  and  cooked,  provide 

the  food, 

Then  before  the  sacred  charger  priests  in  rank  and  order  stood, 
And  by  rules  of  Veda  guided  slew  the  horse  of  noble  breed, 
Placed  Draupadi,  Queen  of  yajna,  by  the  slam  and  lifeless  steed. 

— Mahdbhdrata,  Book  xii  (Dutt's  translation,  pp.  167  f.). 
Krishna  (said): 

I  am  the  creature  seated  deep  in  every  creature's  heart; 

Of  poets  Usana,  of  saints  Vyasa,  sage  divine; 

The  policy  of  conquerors,  the  potency  of  kings, 

The  great  unbroken  silence  in  learning's  secret  things; 

The  lore  of  all  the  learned,  the  seed  of  all  which  springs. 

Living  or  lifeless,  still  or  stirred,  whatever  beings  be, 

None  of  them  in  all  the  worlds,  but  it  exists  by  me! 

— Bhagavad-Gita,  Book  X  (Sir  Edwin  Arnold's  translation). 

155.  History. — Neither  the  Vedic  religion  nor  the 
philosophies  of  the  Upanishads  was  supplanted  by  the 
Buddhistic  and  the  Jainistic  heresies.  Each  lived  on  and 
has  undergone  multiform  developments  hi  the  course 
of  the  centuries.  The  history  of  India  has  witnessed 
many  upheavals.  The  chief  events  down  to  the  reign 
of  Asoka  have  already  been  noted.  The  descendants  of 
Asoka  lingered  as  petty  rajas  of  Magadha  and  of  parts 
of  Western  India  for  several  centuries.  In  206  B.C. 
Antiochus  III  of  Syria  is  said  to  have  made  an  incursion 
into  India,  and  hi  the  following  century  parts  of  India 
were  at  several  times  subject  to  kings  of  Bactria. 


i8o  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

After  Bactria  had  been  overthrown  by  Parthia,  Par- 
thian princes  at  various  times  ruled  portions  of  India 
to  about  60  A.D.  Legend  has  it  that  the  apostle  Thomas 
visited  and  preached  in  India  at  this  time.  These 
conquerors  from  the  West  left  no  permanent  influence 
upon  the  country. 

In  185  B.C.  the  descendant  of  Asoka  at  Pataliputra 
was  overthrown  and  a  Sunga  dynasty  was  established 
there.  Pushyarnitra,  its  founder,  inaugurated  a  reaction 
against  Buddhism  and  revived  the  horse  sacrifice.  The 
Sunga  dynasty  was  succeeded  by  the  Kanva  dynasty 
in  73  B.C.  The  Kanvas  were  in  turn  overthrown  in 
28  B.C.  by  the  Andhra  dynasty,  a  Dravidian  people  who 
lived  in  the  region  of  the  Godavari  and  Kistna  rivers, 
where  the  Telugus  are  now  found.  The  Andhra  dynasty 
had  been  founded  in  that  region  after  the  death  of 
Asoka,  where  it  had  gradually  increased  its  power  until 
it  finally  overthrew  the  Kanva  dynasty  and  controlled 
the  valley  of  the  Ganges.  The  Andhra  kings  flourished 
until  about  225  A.D. 

While  these  events  were  hi  progress  a  Scythian  dy- 
nasty called  Kushan,  that  had  established  itself  in  Bactria 
about  10  B.C.,  invaded  Northwestern  India  about  20  A.D. 
and  established  itself  in  the  region  of  Kabul  and  the 
upper  Indus.  This  dynasty  was  not  expelled  from 
India  until  about  225  A.D.  During  a  part  of  its  career 
in  India  it  controlled  much  of  the  valley  of  the  Ganges. 
One  of  its  kings,  Kanishka,  is  said  to  have  been  con- 
verted to  Buddhism. 

For  about  a  hundred  years  we  have  no  knowledge  of 
the  events  occurring  in  Central  India,  but  about  320  A.D. 
a  man  bearing  the  historic  name  of  Chandragupta 


HINDUISM  181 

established  a  dynasty  at  or  near  Pataliputra,  which 
lasted  till  606  A.D.  and  withstood  an  invasion  of  the 
Huns.  It  was  followed  by  the  powerful  reign  of  Harsha 
of  Thanesar,  who  flourished  until  647  A.D.  After  Harsha's 
death  the  country  broke  up  into  petty  states  which  were 
often  at  war  with  one  another,  and  the  history  of  which 
we  have  not  space  to  follow.  From  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century  (986)  to  the  thirteenth  century  the 
Mohammedans  made  many  conquests  in  Northwestern, 
Central,  and  Southern  India,  compelling  many  of  the 
people  to  accept  Islam.  The  Mohammedans  estab- 
lished monarchies  in  various  parts  of  the  land — Bengal, 
the  Deccan,  Delhi,  etc. — and  became  the  most  important 
political  force  in  the  country  until  1803.  Since  that 
time  India  has  gradually  passed  under  the  control  of 
Great  Britain. 

156.  Systems  of  philosophy. — Before  entering  on 
the  development  of  religion  hi  the  narrower  meaning  of 
the  term,  it  is  convenient  to  trace  the  various  systems 
of  philosophy  that  were  evolved  out  of  the  thought 
of  the  Upanishads  or  in  reaction  against  it.  These 
systems  were  regarded  by  their  adherents  as  religions, 
or  substitutes  for  religion.  Some  of  them  profoundly 
influenced  the  law  books  and  the  epics. 

The  oldest  of  these  philosophies  was  the  Sankhya 
system,  which  is  said  to  have  originated  with  Kapila, 
a  pre-Buddhistic  thinker.  Kapila  revolted  from  the 
monism  of  the  Upanishads,  and  maintained  that  there 
are  two  eternal  things:  matter  and  an  infinite  number 
of  individual  souls.  An  account  of  the  nature  and  the 
mutual  relation  of  these  two  forms  the  main  content  of 
the  system.  The  philosophy  is  atheistic,  as  it  recognizes 


1 82  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

no  God.  What  are  called  gods  were  no  more  than 
individual  souls.  Salvation,  according  to  this  system, 
is  deliverance  from  the  misery  of  transmigration,  and  is 
accomplished  by  the  recognition  of  the  absolute  dis- 
tinction between  matter  and  the  soul. 

The  Yoga  system  was  founded  by  the  grammarian 
Patanjali  two  or  three  centuries  later.  The  system  takes 
its  name  from  a  word  meaning  "union,"  etymologically 
related  to  the  Latin  jugum,  "a  yoke,"  and  had  for  its 
aim,  some  think,  union  with  God.  Others  say  that  it 
means  "exertion"  and  refers  to  ascetic  labors.  Like 
Sankhya,  it  held  to  the  distinction  between  spirit  and 
matter,  but  unlike  it,  it  held  to  faith  in  a  personal  God. 
The  Yoga  theory  of  salvation  was  practical  rather  than 
theoretical.  It  laid  emphasis  on  asceticism  and  expe- 
rience rather  than  upon  knowledge.  Fasting  and  other 
penances  had  long  prevailed  in  India.  The  Yoga  system 
took  them  up  and  enforced  them  with  a  philosophical 
explanation.  The  object  of  these  practices  was  to  isolate 
the  soul  from  matter,  that  it  might  be  united  to  God. 
To  stand  with  mud  caked  in  one's  hair  till  birds  nested 
hi  it,  immovable  because  the  soul  was  hi  ecstatic  abstrac- 
tion, was  an  extreme  manifestation  of  the  practice  of 
Yoga  principles. 

Still  another  philosophy,  a  development  of  that  of 
the  Upanishads,  passes  under  the  name  of  Vedanta.  It 
is  chiefly  influential  in  the  form  given  to  it  by  £ankara, 
a  commentator  on  the  Veda  who  lived  about  800  A.D. 
It  is  built  on  the  conception  of  Brahman,  which  is 
explained  at  times  as  Absolute  Being,  at  times  as  the 
ground  of  being  or  soul  of  the  universe,  and  at  times  as 
a  personal  God.  According  to  this  philosophy  the 


HINDUISM  183 

phenomenal  world  has  no  real  existence,  though  a 
kind  of  existence,  like  that  of  a  dream,  is  accorded  to  it. 
Dreams  are  for  a  time  real,  though  there  is  no  outward 
reality  to  correspond  to  them.  The  bad  dream  of  death 
and  rebirth  will  go  on  until  each  recognizes  that  there 
is  no  real  existence  in  the  world  except  Brahman-Atman. 
This  knowledge  is  salvation.  Passages  in  the  Upani- 
shads  which  speak  of  Brahman  as  a  personal  supreme 
God  were,  £ankara  taught,  accommodations  to  the  limi- 
tations of  human  understanding.  On  account  of  such 
limitation  Brahman  might  be  adored  as  Lord.  This 
was,  however,  a  lower  view  than  the  other.  There 
was  thus  a  distinction  between  a  higher  and  a  lower 
Brahman.  (The  Sanskrit  term  Brahman  and  its  deriva- 
tives are  employed  in  Indian  religious  literature  in  a 
variety  of  ways.  The  term  meant  originally  "to  think 
holy  thoughts,"  "worship,"  "adore,"  etc.  Then  a 
Brahman  was  a  member  of  the  priestly  caste.  The  reli- 
gion conducted  by  this  priestly  caste  came  in  time  to  be 
called  Brahmanism — a  term  which  in  modern  times  is 
sometimes  used  as  a  synonym  of  Hinduism.  Brahman 
was  at  times  also  employed  to  designate  the  object  of 
worship.  In  this  sense  it  is  another  name  for  Atman,  the 
Soul  of  the  universe.) 

Opposed  to  this  school  is  that  of  Ramanuja,  who 
lived  about  noo  A.D.  According  to  this  system  Brah- 
man is  not  a  metaphysical  Absolute,  but  his  essence  is 
intelligence.  He  is  all-enveloping,  all-knowing,  all- 
merciful.  He  is  goodness  and  is  unalterably  opposed  to 
evil.  Souls,  far  from  being  troubled  dreams,  constitute 
the  very  body  of  Brahman.  Ramanuja,  like  the  others, 
accepted  the  doctrine  of  death  and  rebirth.  On  his  view 


1 84  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

one  could  gain  salvation  from  this  by  loving  God,  seeking 
him,  adoring  him.  God  would  then  mercifully  grant  the 
seeking  soul  release  and  permit  it  to  share  his  own  bliss. 

There  are  three  minor  orthodox  systems  of  phi- 
losophy, the  Mimansa,  which  explains  the  value  to  be 
derived  from  Vedic  ceremonies;  the  Nyaya,  a  system  of 
logic  and  argumentation ;  and  the  £arvakas,  a  material- 
istic philosophy  which  regards  the  soul  as  a  kind  of 
ferment  produced  by  the  elements  of  the  body. 

The  influence  of  these  philosophic  sects  upon  Hindu- 
ism has  been  profound.  One  consequence  of  this  is  the 
widespread  belief  that  salvation  may  be  attained  by 
contemplation  of  Brahman  and  intellectual  absorption 
rather  than  by  ethical  endeavor  and  attainment  of 
character.  Religion  thus  becomes  a  matter  of  thought, 
and  the  life  remains  untouched. 

157.  Religion  of  the  earlier  law  books. — Perhaps  the 
earliest  sources  of  information  concerning  the  religion  of 
the  period  just  outlined  are  the  law  books  of  India,  the 
sutras  of  Gautama,  Apastamba,  and  Manu.  These 
are,  if  not  the  earliest,  the  most  conservative  sources. 
It  is  thought  that  the  Institutes  of  Gautama  may  be  as 
early  as  the  rise  of  Buddhism.  This  work  makes  the 
Veda  the  source  of  sacred  law;  a  king  and  a  Brahman 
are  to  be  deeply  versed  in  the  Veda.  The  work  is  a  set 
of  rules  defining  the  duties  of  each  of  the  four  castes. 
Incidentally  it  ordains  certain  sacrifices  to  Agni,  the 
Maruts,  and  to  Prajapati,  the  Vedic  Creator.1  Adora- 
tion of  Rudra,  Mitra,  Indra,  Agni,  Soma,  and  all  the  gods 
is  also  prescribed.2  Heaven  is  the  reward  of  witnesses 
who  speak  the  truth;  hell,  of  those  who  lie.3 

1  Gautama,  v,  10.  *  Ibid.,  ncvi.  J  Ibid.,  xiii,  7. 


HINDUISM  185 

In  the  Aphorisms  of  Apastamba  there  is  more  varia- 
tion from  Vedic  worship.  Offerings  and  hymns  were  to 
be  presented  to  "Earth,  Air,  Heaven,  Sun,  Moon,  the 
Constellations,  Indra,  Brihaspati,  Prajapati,  and  Brah- 
man."1 Brihaspati,  "Lord  of  Prayer,"  is  a  deity  of  the 
Rig- Veda,  but  Brahman,  the  universal  substance  of  the 
monistic  philosophy  of  the  Upanishads,  has  been  taken 
from  later  strata  of  thought.  His  presence  is  evidence 
that  even  these  law  books  were  not  untouched  by  the 
speculations  of  the  philosophers.  In  this  work,  as  in 
that  of  Gautama,  the  distinctions  of  caste  are  everywhere 
presupposed,  and  are  rigidly  enforced.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  and  of  Karma  may 
to  some  extent  relieve  men  from  the  prison-house  of 
caste.  Those  who  do  well  may  in  successive  births  enter 
higher  castes;  those  who  do  ill,  if  members  of  a  noble 
caste,  will  be  born  in  the  future  hi  lower  castes.8  In  the 
Ordinances  of  Manu  (about  200  B.C.  ?)  the  influence 
of  philosophic  speculation  is  still  more  pronounced. 
While  formally  making  the  Veda  the  basis  of  legal  prac- 
tice, and  enforcing  the  obligations  of  caste,  many  varia- 
tions are  introduced.  The  Lord,  Creator  of  all  things, 
is  Brahman.  He  is  self -existent;  he  created  all  things, 
even  the  gods;  lightnings,  thunderbolts,  and  Indra's 
unbent  bow  are  his  work.3  This  one  some  declare  to  be 
Agni,  others  Manu  Prajapati,  some  Indra,  others  breath, 
others  again  the  eternal  Brahman .4  The  wicked  man  goes 
not  to  one  hell,  but  to  twenty-one  hells,5  though  in  other 
passages  it  is  taught  that  sin  may  be  punished  by  rebirths 

1  Apastamba,  II,  2,  4:4. 

3  Ibid.,  EC,  5,  11:10,  n.  *Ibid.,  xii,  123. 

*  Manu,  i.  *  Ibid.,  iv,  87  ff. 


1 86  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

rather  than  in  hells.  Thus  the  crime  of  killing  a  beast 
will  be  punished  by  as  many  rebirths  as  there  were  hairs 
on  the  animal.1  Salvation  is,  according  to  Manu,  union 
with  Brahman,  but  the  thought  as  to  how  this  union 
might  be  accomplished  was  evidently  in  a  state  of 
transition.  At  times  it  is  said  to  be  effected  by  study  of 
the  Veda,  by  vows,  offerings,  offspring,  and  sacrifice.2 
At  other  times  it  is  said  to  be  secured  by  meditation.3 
At  times  the  rules  of  sacrifice  are  enforced  with  almost 
trivial  literalness ;  at  other  times  sacrifice  is  declared  to 
be  spiritual.4  In  such  ways  the  old  religion  appears  in 
the  Laws  of  Manu  to  be  in  process  of  transformation. 

In  the  estimation  of  the  compilers  of  all  these  laws 
it  was  necessary  to  regard  the  Veda  as  the  Hindu  Bible, 
but  the  Veda  to  which  they  adhered  was  not  always  the 
same.  Gautama  built  upon  the  Sama-Veda,  Apastamba 
and  Manu  upon  the  Yajur-Veda.  The  methods  of 
treating  Vedic  texts  and  institutions  differed,  as  the 
methods  of  interpretation  applied  to  the  Bible  by  modern 
Christian  sects  have  sometimes  differed.  It  was  thus 
that  one  school  could  justify  speculations  which  almost 
did  away  with  Vedic  gods. 

158.  The  Mahabharata,  the  great  epic  of  India,  is  a 
work  of  much  religious  significance.  It  has  profoundly 
affected  large  sections  of  Hindu  religious  life.  Like  the 
Gilgamesh  Epic  of  the  Babylonians  and  like  the  Iliad,  it 
is  not  all  from  one  hand  or  one  age.  It  is  a  long  con- 
glomerate work,  containing  about  eight  times  as  much 
material  as  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  put  together.5 

1  Manu,  v,  38.  *  Ibid.,  iv,  87;  vi,  79. 

2  Ibid.,  ii,  28.  « Ibid.,  iv,  22-28. 
s  Macdonell,  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  282. 


HINDUISM  187 

This  mass  of  material  was  a  gradual  growth,  beginning 
as  an  epic  not  earlier  than  400  B.C.,  and  (with  the  excep- 
tion of  minor  amplifications)  completed  about  400  A.D.1 
By  500  A.D.  its  contents  were  the  same  as  at  present.2 
The  beginnings  of  the  epic  are  based  on  stories  that 
reach  much  farther  back  into  Indian  antiquity. 

Even  a  brief  outline  of  the  epic  story  would  occupy 
too  much  of  our  space.  The  scene  is  laid  at  Hastina- 
pura,  fifty-seven  miles  northeast  of  the  modern  Delhi. 
The  region  was  called,  from  the  ruling  race,  the  land  of 
the  Kurus.  Here  two  brothers  ruled,  Dhritarashtra  and 
Pandu.  Dhritarashtra  being  blind,  Pandu  reigned  glori- 
ously. Pandu had  five  sons,  the  chief  of  whom  were  called 
Yudhishthira,  Bhima,  and  Arjuna;  Dhritarashtra  had 
a  hundred  sons.  After  Pandu's  death  Dhritarashtra 
took  over  the  government,  but  made  Yudhishthira 
the  heir  apparent.  Soon  the  sons  of  Pandu  were  com- 
pelled by  the  hatred  of  their  hundred  cousins  to  flee 
the  kingdom.  They  made  their  way  to  the  king  of 
Panchala,  whose  daughter,  Draupadi,  Arjuna  won  by 
a  feat  of  arms.  They  soon  formed  an  alliance  with 
Krishna,  the  hero  of  the  Yadavas,  who  from  this  time 
became  the  friend,  adviser,  and  champion  of  the  brothers, 
especially  of  the  most  warlike  of  them,  Arjuna.  Because 
of  their  powerful  alliances  their  uncle  now  divided  his 
kingdom  with  the  five  brothers  in  order  to  placate  them. 
Through  the  machinations  of  one  of  their  cousins  a  con- 
flict was  precipitated.  With  the  account  of  this  conflict 
the  epic  action  begins.  There  were  battles,  victories, 
defeats,  the  loss  of  a  kingdom  by  gambling,  banishment, 

'  Hopkins,  The  Great  Epic  of  India  (New  York,  1901),  p.  308. 
1  Macdonell,  op.  cit.,  p.  287. 


i88  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  wars  again.  To  the  original  story  of  war  other 
stories  have  been  added  in  the  lapse  of  time.  The  differ- 
ent strata  represent  many  varying  religious  conceptions. 
In  parts  of  it  the  Vedic  custom  of  animal  sacrifice  is 
described  with  approval,  as  in  the  case  of  the  horse  sacri- 
fice in  Book  xii,  quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter.  In 
other  parts  philosophic  speculations  and  anti-priestly 
utterances  are  enthusiastically  set  forth.  The  most 
significant  religious  feature  of  the  epic  is  the  way  in 
which  Krishna  developed  from  an  earthly  hero  to  an 
incarnation  of  Vishnu.  We  learn  from  the  Greek  writer 
Megasthenes,  who  was  hi  India  about  300  B.C.,  that  at 
that  time  the  two  gods  Vishnu  and  £iva  were  already 
very  prominent,  and  that  people  were  divided  into 
Vishnuites  and  £ivaites.  £iva  was  originally  the  Vedic 
god  Rudra,  a  god  of  storm  and  vengeance.  £iva  means 
"auspicious"  and  was  a  euphemistic  epithet  given  to 
Rudra.  The  new  name  seems  gradually  to  have  changed 
to  some  extent  the  character  of  the  god,  who  became  the 
auspicious  deity  to  many,  and  vied  with  Vishnu,  one 
of  the  Vedic  sun-gods,  for  the  devotion  of  the  Indian 
peoples.  The  division  into  Vishnuites  and  Qivaites, 
noted  by  Megasthenes,  became  one  of  the  most  far- 
reaching  distinctions  in  Hinduism.  The  Mahdbhdrata  is 
one  of  the  great  products  of  a  part  of  the  Vishnuites. 

Krishna  was,  it  is  thought,  a  real  man,  a  nephew  of 
Kamsa,  king  of  the  Yadavas.  He  was  born  at  Mathura, 
between  Delhi  and  Agra.  An  oracle  warned  Kamsa 
that  a  son  of  his  brother  would  kill  him;  he  therefore 
put  his  nephews  to  death  as  fast  as  they  were  born. 
Krishna's  parents  secretly  conveyed  their  son  to  the 
other  side  of  the  river,  where,  with  an  older  brother  who 


HINDUISM  189 

had  also  escaped,  he  was  brought  up  by  a  herdsman  and 
his  wife.  The  brothers  became  famous  for  their  fights 
with  demons  and  dragons.  Their  fame  reached  the 
uncle,  who  summoned  them  to  his  court,  when  the  uncle 
was  put  out  of  the  way,  and  Krishna  became  king. 
After  many  other  victories  he  became  the  charioteer 
of  the  prince  Arjuna,  and  took  part  in  the  wars  which 
form  the  central  theme  of  the  Mahabharata.  Many 
years  later  internecine  strife  broke  out  among  the  Yada- 
vas,  when  they  killed  one  another  to  the  last  man, 
Krishna  perishing  with  the  others. 

Why  this  hero  became  Vishnu  incarnate  we  can  now 
only  conjecture.  One  plausible  theory  is  that  he  was 
a  religious  reformer,  who  taught  people  to  worship  God 
under  the  name  of  Bhagavata,  "the  Adorable,"  and  that 
he  was  afterward  regarded  as  an  incarnation  of  God,  the 
Brahmans  interpreting  God  as  Vishnu. 

159.  The  Bhagavad-Gita,  or  "Song  of  the  Blessed/' 
lends  probability  to  the  theory  just  mentioned.  It  is 
inserted  as  an  episode  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  Maha- 
bharata. It  is  placed  at  a  point  in  the  epic  where  Arjuna 
was  compelled  to  lead  the  forces  of  the  sons  of  Pandu 
against  his  cousins,  the  sons  of  Dhritarashtra,  in  fratri- 
cidal strife.  Arjuna  hesitated  and  Krishna  proceeded 
to  instruct  him  in  the  true  doctrine  of  sacrifice — the 
sacrifice  of  the  lower  self  to  the  higher  self.  The  out- 
ward war  of  the  brothers  was  thus  made  to  interpret 
the  inward  war  of  the  two  natures  in  every  man.  The 
teaching  is  given  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue.  Arjuna 
asked  many  questions,  to  which  Krishna  gave  illumi- 
nating replies.  In  these  replies  the  spiritual  religion 
of  the  Krishna- Vishnuites  is  clearly  set  forth  and  at  the 


190  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

same  time  is  given  practical  application  to  the  affairs 
of  real  life.  Krishna,  hi  the  passage  quoted  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  chapter,  as  the  embodiment  of  Vishnu,  is  the 
all-embracing  immanent  deity. 

In  him  pantheism  is  made  personal.  The  great 
struggle  of  life  is  the  struggle  between  one's  lower  and 
higher  natures.  In  carrying  on  this  struggle  one  should 
not  flee  arduous  manly  duty  (not  even  the  war  which 
confronted  Arjuna  could  be  shirked),  but  one  should 
stand  up  manfully  to  that  which  the  immanent  God  laid 
upon  him.  The  transmigration  of  the  soul  is  assumed 
as  an  underlying  philosophy  all  through  the  poem,  and 
the  philosophies  of  different  schools  find  expression  hi 
different  parts  of  the  work.1  The  poem  was  in  some 
form  present  hi  the  epic,  it  is  thought,  as  early  as  250 
B.C.,2  though  hi  parts  it  has  been  expanded  since. 
Although  an  eclectic  work,  the  Bhagavad-Gita  is  the  finest 
ethical  and  religious  product  of  non-Buddhistic  Indian 
religious  thought.  Certain  strains  remind  us  of  words 
of  Jesus,  as  the  following  from  Krishna: 

Who  doeth  all  for  Me;  who  findeth  Me 

In  all;  adoreth  always;  loveth  all 

Which  I  have  made,  and  Me,  for  love's  sole  end, 

That  man,  Arjuna!  unto  me  doth  wend.J 

Some  modern  Hindu  sects  and  their  admirers  have  had 
the  Bhagavad-Gita  printed  hi  many  translations,  and  cir- 
culate it  as  Bible  societies  circulate  the  New  Testament. 

1  These  philosophies  are  outlined  in  sec.  156. 

a  So  Garbe  in  the  article  "Bhagavad-Gita"  hi  Hastings'  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  II,  535  ff. 

» Bhagavad-Gita,  Sir  Edwin  Arnold's  The  Song  Celestial,  end  of 
Book  XI,  pp.  128  ff. 


HINDUISM  191 

Such  incarnations  or  descents  (avataras)  of  Vishnu 
and  other  deities  are  supposed  in  India  to  have  occurred 
many  times.  These  avataras  were  sometimes  in  animal 
as  well  as  in  human  form.  Vishnu  was  believed  to  have 
manifested  himself  in  this  way  nine  times.  Thus  old 
cults  were  reinterpreted  as  ancient  forms  of  later  ones. 
In  time  it  was  supposed  that  whenever  religion  was  in 
danger  or  iniquity  was  triumphant  the  god  was  incar- 
nated to  set  things  right.  This  view  is  expressed  in  the 
Bhagavad-Gita. 

1 60.  The  Ramayana  is  another  epic  poem  that  has 
had  great  religious  significance  in  India.  In  its  present 
form  it  consists  of  seven  books,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
composed  by  a  poet  named  Valmiki.  Jacobi  has  shown 
that  the  original  kernel  of  the  poem  consisted  of  Books 
ii-vi,  and  there  are  reasons  for  supposing  that  these  five 
books  were  composed  before  400  B.C.  and  some  think  they 
antedate  the  beginning  of  Buddhism.1  The  scene  of  the 
Ramayana  was  the  vicinity  of  Ayodhya,  the  modern 
Oudh,  about  170  miles  northwest  of  Benares.  Da^a- 
ratha,  king  of  Ayodhya,  had  three  sons  by  three  wives: 
Rama,  son  of  Kaucalya;  Bharata,  son  of  Kaikeyi;  and 
Lakshmana,  son  of  Sumitra.  Rama  was  declared  the  heir 
apparent,  but  Kaikeyi,  anxious  that  her  son  Bharata 
should  be  the  next  king,  persuaded  Dagaratha  to  grant 
her  any  boon  she  might  ask.  Having  obtained  her 
request  she  asked  that  Bharata  might  be  made  heir 
apparent  and  Rama  be  banished  for  fourteen  years. 
Rama  was  accompanied  into  exile  by  his  wife  Sita  and 
his  half-brother  Lakshmana.  All  three  lived  happily  in 
the  forest  of  Dandaka.  Upon  the  death  of  Dacaratha, 

1  Macdonell,  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  309. 


192  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Bharata  refused  to  reign,  but  sought  out  Rama  and 
implored  him  to  return.  When  Rama  refused,  Bharata 
went  back,  placed  a  pair  of  Rama's  shoes  on  the  throne, 
and  himself  dispensed  justice  by  their  side.  Rama  con- 
tinued to  dwell  in  the  forest,  having  various  adventures, 
engaging  in  various  wars,  and  making  alliances  with  the 
monkeys.  Once  he  was  compelled  to  rescue  his  wife 
Sita  from  captors  somewhat  as  King  David  did  his.1 

The  original  poem  had  to  do  with  these  adventures, 
but  by  the  addition  of  Books  i  and  vii  Rama  has  been 
made  an  embodiment  of  Vishnu,  so  that  the  poem,  like 
the  Mahdbhdrata,  is  a  glorification  of  Vishnu.  In  con- 
sequence of  this,  some  Hindu  sects  regard  the  Ramayana 
as  their  Old  Testament  and  use  it  for  religious  edification. 
Rama,  the  incarnate  deity,  is  the  type  of  the  filial  son; 
Sita,  of  the  faithful  wife;  Lakshmana,  of  the  devoted 
brother.  The  story  of  Rama  and  Sita  is  thought  by 
some  to  have  been  heightened  by  an  infusion  of  Vedic 
myth;  others  regard  them  as  simply  humanized  mythical 
characters.  The  sects  that  reverence  Rama  are  not  as 
numerous  as  those  that  reverence  Krishna. 

161.  The  Institutes  of  Vishnu,  not  earlier  than 
200  A.D.,  is  a  law  book  that  affords  interesting  evidence 
that  such  pantheistic  theology  as  that  of  the  Bhagavad- 
Gita  was  unable  to  expel  the  old  ceremonies  from  any 
considerable  section  of  even  that  part  of  Hindu  life 
affected  by  the  Vishnuite  sects.  In  the  Institutes  it  is 
still  made  obligatory  to  offer  burnt  offerings  to  Agni, 
Soma,  Mitra,  Varuna,  Indra,  and  others;2  such  was  the 
influence  of  Vedic  scripture.  Nevertheless  in  another 

'Cf.  I  Sam.  30:1-6. 

» See  Sacred  Pooks  of  the  East,  VII,  chap,  kvii,  p.  3. 


HINDUISM  193 

chapter  the  pantheistic  doctrine  of  the  all-embracing 
Vishnu  is  set  forth.1  While  such  sacrifices  are  inculcated 
in  one  chapter,  another  declares  that  a  "Brahmana  may 
beyond  doubt  obtain  final  emancipation  by  solely  repeat- 
ing (prayers),  whether  he  perform  any  other  religious 
observance  or  no;  one  who  is  benevolent  towards  all 
creatures  (and  does  not  slay  them  for  sacrifice)  is  justly 
called  a  Brahmana  (or  one  united  to  Brahman)."2 
Each  of  the  twenty-one  hells  of  Manu  is  declared  to  be 
the  residence  for  a  specified  time  of  sinners  who  have  not 
performed  the  proper  penance,3  but  such  sinners  will  be 
reborn,  each  as  a  different  animal.  One  who  steals  vege- 
tables containing  leaves  will  become  a  peacock;  one  who 
steals  a  horse,  a  tiger;  one  who  steals  a  woman,  a  bear,4 
etc.  Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  confusion  that 
arose  from  perpetuating  the  old,  developing  it  at  some 
points,  and  at  the  same  time  attempting  to  combine 
with  it  a  philosophy  which  denied  the  validity  of  the  old. 
Many  influences  have  in  the  course  of  centuries  made 
themselves  felt  in  Vishnuite  thought  and  many  sects 
have  developed.  This  has  been  due  hi  part  to  the  phi- 
losophies described  in  section  156.  Some  of  the  sects 
stand  for  lofty  ethics  and  real  theism;  some  of  them 
have  degenerated  to  immorality.  Those  of  the  last- 
mentioned  type  are  found  most  often  among  the  sects 
that  have  substituted  love  of  Krishna  for  intellectual 
contemplation  of  him.  They  frequently  manifest  this 
love  by  imitating  his  relations  with  his  various  wives. 
A  good  example  of  these  is  the  sect  of  Vallabhacaris, 
named  for  its  founder  Vallabhacarya,  who  was  born 

1  Ibid.,  chap,  xcviii.  3  Ibid.,  chap,  xliii. 

3  Ibid.,  chap,  iv,  ai.  4  Ibid.,  chap.  xliv. 


194  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

about  1478  A.D.  The  members  of  the  sect  work  them- 
selves up  into  great  emotional  manifestations,  in  which 
they  frequently  roll  unconscious  on  the  ground.  They 
hold  that  love  for  Krishna  should  be  manifested  by 
imitating  his  devotion  to  his  favorite  concubine  Radha, 
and,  as  they  have  abolished  the  rules  of  caste,  many  loose 
characters  are  found  among  them.  Emotionalism  thus 
naturally  degenerates  into  license.  The  priests  of  the  sect 
are  regarded  as  representatives  of  Krishna  on  earth  and 
claim  and  receive  honors  due  to  him.  Women  are  taught 
that  the  highest  bliss  is  secured  to  them  and  their  families 
by  receiving  the  caresses  of  Krishna's  representatives. 
The  priests  also  claim  and  receive  the  jus  primae  noctis. 
162.  The  Civaites. — Side  by  side  with  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  worship  of  Vishnu  the  worship  of  £iva 
developed.  As  already  noted,  £iva  was  Rudra  under 
another  name.  Unlike  Vishnu,  £iva  is  not  believed  to 
have  become  incarnate.  Another  divergence  is  found 
hi  the  fact  that  with  £iva  many  goddesses  appear  to  be 
associated.  There  is  not  only  his  wife  Devi,  but  Gauri, 
the  bright  one;  Sati,  the  faithful  wife;  Parvati,  the 
daughter  of  the  mountains;  Kali,  the  black  one;  Bhai- 
ravi,  the  terrible;  Karala,  the  horrible.  Perhaps  these 
were  originally  but  various  names  of  Devi.  The  con- 
ception of  £iva  and  his  goddesses  is  not  purely  Aryan. 
Many  elements  from  the  aboriginal  races  of  India  have 
been  gathered  into  it.  To  these  goddesses  the  terrifying 
powers  of  the  Vedic  Rudra  are  now  largely  attributed, 
so  that  £iva  himself  is  more  nearly  the  auspicious  one. 
The  most  common  emblem  of  f  iva  is  the  phallus  (lingam) 
and  its  female  counterpart,  the  yoni.  The  philosophical 
affinities  of  £ivaism  are  with  the  dualistic  philosophies 


HINDUISM  195 

of  Sankhya  and  Yoga  rather  than  with  the  monistic 
systems.  Though  the  £ivaite  sects  are  not  so  numerous 
as  the  Vishnuite,  there  are  several.  To  some  of  these 
£iva  is  the  "Great  Yogin,"  who,  besmeared  with  ashes 
and  with  matted  hair,  sits  under  the  Pipa-tree,  and  who 
through  meditation  has  become  a  god.  Such  worshipers 
imitate  him.  Megasthenes,  when  in  India,  saw  another 
side  to  £iva,  whom  he  identified  with  the  Greek,  Dipnysos 

In  £iva  as  worshiped  by  the  £akta  sect  the  baser 
side  of  Vedic  religion — that  element  that  worshiped 
Soma — has  survived  and  been  reinforced  by  other  ele- 
ments drawn  from  aboriginal  Indian  cults.  Man  is 
recognized  as  a  creature  of  passions,  and  it  is  held  that 
it  is  by  means  of  these  passions  that  he  is  to  cross  the 
region  of  darkness  to  union  with  £iva.  Passion  is 
poison,  but  poison  can  be  killed  only  by  poison.  Hence 
the  five  things  that  have  caused  man's  ruin — wine, 
flesh,  fish,  mystic  gesticulations,  and  sexual  indulgence — 
are  employed  by  them  in  religious  orgies.  In  this  sect 
the  qakti,  or  female  principle,  assumes  the  leading  place. 

163.  The  triad. — Although  there  is  much  rivalry 
between  the  worshipers  of  Vishnu  and  of  £iva,  this 
rivalry  is  not  universal.  In  the  south  of  India  the  two 
are  often  coupled  together  under  the  name  Hari-Hara 
and  worshiped  as  one  god.  In  other  places  their  temples 
are  often  in  the  same  sacred  inclosure.  In  certain 
circles  Brahman  was  added,  and  the  three  adored  as  a 
triad.  Thus  Kalidasa,  the  Shakespeare  of  India,  sang: 

In  those  three  persons  the  one  God  was  shown — 
Each  first  in  place,  each  last — not  one  alone; 

Of  Civa,  Vishnu,  Brahma,1  each  may  be 
First,  second,  third,  among  the  Blessed  Three. 

*  Another  spelling  of  Brahman. 


196  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

It  was  by  the  formation  of  a  triad  that  certain  thinkers 
reconciled  the  rival  claims  of  various  sects. 

164.  Temples. — While   the   Vedic   religion   had   no 
permanent  holy  places,   Hinduism   has   long   erected 
temples   all   over   India.     Benares,   the   Jerusalem   of 
India,  has  the  largest  number.    There  are  at  least  two 
thousand  temples  there,  not  counting  smaller  shrines. 
The  temples  vary  greatly  in  size  and  splendor.1    Each 
contains  one  or  more  idols,  except  temples  of  £iva, 
whose  emblem  is  the  lingam.    The  larger  temples  support 
extensive  priesthoods  as  well  as  bands  of  musicians  and 
dancing  girls.    In  temples  where  there  are  idols  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  priests  to  awaken  them  each  morning,  make 
their  toilets,  burn  incense  before  them,  and  offer  them 
food.    The  number  of  temples  and  shrines  is  continually 
increasing.     The  scene  of  some  unusual  event,  or  the 
abode  of  some  person  accounted  sacred,  is  sufficient  to 
mark  out  a  spot  for  a  shrine.    There  is  not  an  object  in 
heaven  or  on  earth  that  the  Indian  is  not  prepared  to 
worship.    He  holds  all  life  sacred,  plant  as  well  as  animal. 
All  living  things  are  venerated,  but  the  cow  is  regarded 
as  most  sacred.     She  typifies  the  all-yielding  earth,  and 
is  the  chief  source  of  nourishment  of  every  Hindu.    The 
ox  is   the  indispensable   agent  of   agricultural   labor. 
Images  of  the  typical  cow  of  plenty  are  sold  in  the 
bazaars  and  bought  as  objects  of  reverence,  and  sacred 
cows  are  found  in  many  temples. 

165.  The  Sikhs. — Early  in  the  fifteenth  century  a 
reformer,  Kabir  by  name,  assailed  idolatry  and  broke 
away  from  all  authority,  whether  Hindu  or  Mohamme- 
dan.   His  followers  were  to  conform  to  no  rites.     Several 

*  For  pictures  of  some  of  these,  see  V.  A.  Smith,  Early  History  of 
India,  pp.  428,  465. 


HINDUISM  197 

sects  trace  their  spiritual  ancestry  to  him.  Of  these  the 
Kabir  Panthis  regard  Kabir  as  a  god.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  them  are,  however,  the  Sikhs,  founded  toward 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  Nanak,  a  professed 
follower  of  Kabir.  Under  the  influence  of  Islam  he 
endeavored  to  purge  Vishnuism  of  superstition.  He 
taught  a  monotheistic  faith.  God  is  Supreme  Lord  by 
whatever  name  he  is  called.  Deliverance  from  the 
round  of  rebirths  and  reabsorption  into  God  was,  he  held, 
an  act  of  free  grace,  communicated  by  means  of  a  formula 
which  could  be  taught  only  by  one  who  stood  hi  apostolic 
succession  to  Kabir  and  himself.  Nanak's  son,  Arjun, 
compiled  the  Granth,  or  Sikh  Bible.  It  contains  utter- 
ances of  Kabir,  Nanak,  and  of  many  of  the  older  Hindu 
saints,  to  which  Arjun  added  some  of  his  own.  The 
Sikhs  became  a  wealthy  and  militant  community,  which 
played  an  important  part  in  Amritsar  in  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries.  The  fourth  hi  succession 
from  Nanak  built  a  temple  at  Amritsar. 

1 66.  Modern  Hindu  reforms. — The  impact  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Western  civilization  upon  India  has  led  to 
at  least  two  noteworthy  efforts  to  adjust  Hinduism  to 
modern  conditions.  The  earliest  of  these  efforts  is 
the  Brahma  Samaj  (Society  of  God),  founded  in  1828 
by  Ram  Mohan  Ray,  a  distinguished,  broad-minded 
Brahman.  It  has  had  since  his  death  two  other  dis- 
tinguished leaders,  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and  Keshab 
Chandra  Sen.  As  each  of  these  leaders  stood  for  a  some- 
what different  religious  position,  and  as  there  were  some 
members  of  the  society  who,  at  each  new  departure,  pre- 
ferred the  older  view,  the  Brahma  Samaj  is  now  composed 
of  three  wings.  All  branches  of  it  agree  that  God  is 


198  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

a  personal  being,  that  he  never  became  incarnate,  that 
he  hears  and  answers  prayer,  that  he  is  to  be  worshiped 
only  in  spiritual  ways,  that  men  of  all  castes  may  worship 
him  acceptably,  that  repentance  and  cessation  from  sin 
are  the  only  way  to  forgiveness  and  salvation,  and  that 
nature  and  intuition  are  the  sources  of  the  knowledge  of 
God,  no  book  being  authoritative.  The  branch  of  it 
led  by  Keshab  Chandra  Sen  is  known  as  the  "New 
Dispensation  Samaj."  It  adds  to  the  articles  already 
mentioned  belief  that  the  soul  is  immortal;  that  God  is 
a  Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit;  that  God  is  Mother 
as  well  as  Father;  that  God  speaks  through  inspired 
men  as  well  as  through  nature  and  intuition;  that 
Brahmanism  is  a  universal  religion ;  and  that  the  Brahma 
Samaj  is  God's  latest  dispensation  and  its  missionaries 
his  apostles.  In  1901  there  were  but  4,050  members  in 
all  three  branches  of  the  society. 

The  Arya  Samaj  (Society  of  the  Noble)  was  founded 
in  1875  by  Mul  Sankar,  better  known  as  Swami  Daya- 
nand  Sarasvati,  who  was  born  as  a  member  of  the  £iva 
cult,  broke  away  from  it  for  the  Vedanta  philosophy, 
and  finally  became  a  religious  reformer  on  the  basis  of 
the  Sankhya-Yoga  philosophies.  Dayanand  Sarasvati 
had  come  in  contact  with  modern  civilization  through 
many  channels,  and  endeavored  to  reform  Hinduism  to 
meet  the  conditions  of  modern  life.  He  taught  belief 
in  a  personal  God,  who  is  all-truth,  all-knowledge,  incor- 
poreal, almighty,  just,  merciful,  unbegotten,  unchange- 
able, all-pervading,  and  the  cause  of  the  universe.  The 
Vedas  are  the  books  of  true  knowledge;  one  should 
always  be  ready  to  accept  truth;  all  ought  to  be  treated 
with  love,  justice,  and  in  disregard  of  their  merits; 


HINDUISM  199 

ignorance  should  be  dispelled;  and  everyone  should 
regard  his  prosperity  as  included  in  that  of  others.  His 
great  cry  was  "back  to  the  Vedas."  He  professed  to 
derive  all  his  teaching  from  them,  but  the  method  of 
interpretation  by  which  he  extracted  the  true  doctrine 
and  put  aside  all  that  contradicted  it  was  peculiarly  his 
own.  It  conformed  neither  to  Hindu  canons  of  inter- 
pretation nor  to  those  of  scientific  exegesis.  According 
to  him  salvation  was  to  be  accomplished  by  effort.  No 
distinctions  of  caste  are  regarded  valid. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  adherents  of  the  Arya  Samaj 
now  number  about  100,000.  The  Samaj  is  now  divided 
into  a  "  cultured ' '  and  a  conservative  party.  The  former 
eats  meat  and  fosters  modern  education,  maintaining 
a  creditable  college  at  Lahore;  the  latter  is  vegetarian, 
and  adheres  to  the  ancient  ideas  of  education. 

167.  Summary. — Hinduism,  which  is  still  the  religion 
of  some  200,000,000  people,  presents  almost  endless 
variety  of  faith  and  practice.  These  diversities  have 
been  created  by  the  various  influences,  internal  and 
external,  that  have  swept  over  India  since  the  Vedic 
age.  It  has  no  rallying-point;  it  stands  for  no  one  great 
idea  or  ideal.  Some  of  its  ideas  are  beautiful;  many  of 
its  ideals  noble;  but  in  general  it  lacks  consistency  and 
coherency.  In  most  of  its  varied  manifestations  Hindu- 
ism suffers  by  the  divorce  of  religion  from  life.  Salva- 
tion is  to  be  attained  by  intellectual  absorption  or  by 
some  ritual  acts.  That  it  should  affect  conduct  most 
of  the  systems  deny  or  ignore.1  The  ideals  of  the 

1  The  separation  between  religion  and  morals  is  implied  in  chap,  vi 
of  the  Advanced  Textbook  of  Hindu  Religion  and  Ethics  used  in  the 
Central  Hindu  College  at  Benares,  where  emphasis  is  also  laid  upon 
religion  as  a  contemplation  of  God.  See  pp.  221-37. 


200  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Bhagavad-Gita  are  noble,  but  Krishna  as  he  is  worshiped 
in  Bengal  fosters  prostitution  in  his  temples,  while  the 
cult  of  £iva  often  degenerates  to  immoral  orgies.  For 
the  most  part  Hinduism  is  ethically  impotent  and  many 
of  her  holy  men  are  gross. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  155:  cf.  V.  A.  Smith,  Early  History  of  India,  Inclining  the 
Campaigns  of  Alexander  (Oxford,  1914). 

On  sees.  156,  160:  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  chap.  xiv. 

On  sees.  157,  159:  Hopkins,  The  Great  Epic  of  India  (New 
York,  1001);  or  J.  C.  Oman,  Indian  Epics,  the  Ramayana 
and  Mahabharata  (London,  1906);  and  the  translations  in 
Dutt,  Mahabharata,  The  Epic  of  Ancient  India  (London,  1899). 

On  sec.  158:  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  The  Song  Celestial  (Boston,  1909). 

On  sec.  161:  Hopkins,  The  Great  Epic  of  India,  chap,  iii;  or 
G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I,  chap.  xiii. 

On  sees.  162-65:  cf.  Jacobi,  "Brahmanism"  in  Hastings'  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  II;  or  Nicoll  Macnicol, 
Indian  Theism  (Oxford  University  Press,  1915),  chaps,  vii-xi; 
or  M.  Monier-Williams,  Hinduism  (i4th  ed.,  London,  1901), 
chaps,  vii-xii. 

On  sec.  166:  cf.  "Brahma  Samaj"  and  " Arya  Samaj"  in  Hastings' 
Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  II. 

CLASS   B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I,  chaps,  xiii-xv. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA 

Always  and  in  everything  let  there  be  reverence;  with  the 
deportment  grave  as  when  one  is  thinking  (deeply)  and  with 
speech  composed  and  definite. — Lt  Kt,  I,  i,  i1. 

If  a  man  observe  the  rules  of  propriety,  he  is  in  a  condition  of 
security;  if  he  do  not,  he  is  in  one  of  danger. — Lt  Kt,  I,  i,  6**. 

That  which  I  do  not  wish  others  to  put  upon  me,  I  also  wish 
not  to  put  upon  others. — CONFUCIUS,  Analects,  Book  V. 

The  Way  (Tao)  that  can  be  trodden  is  not  the  enduring  and 
unchanging  Way  (Tao).  The  name  that  can  be  named  is  not 
the  enduring  and  unchanging  name. — Tao  Teh  King,  I,  i,  i. 

Always  without  desire  we  must  be  found, 
If  its  deep  mystery  we  would  sound; 
But  if  desire  always  within  us  be, 
Its  outer  fringe  is  all  that  we  shall  see. 

— Tao  Teh  King,  I,  i,  3. 

The  highest  excellence  is  like  that  of  water.  The  excellence 
of  water  appears  in  its  benefiting  all  things,  and  in  its  occupying, 
without  striving  (to  the  contrary),  the  low  place  which  all  men 
dislike.  Hence  (its  way)  is  near  to  (that  of)  the  Tao. — Tao  Teh 
King,  I,  8,  i. 

168.  The  land,  people,  and  history. — The  cradle  of 
Chinese  civilization  appears  to  have  been  the  provinces 
of  Shan-si  and  Kan-su  in  Northwest  China — provinces 
watered  by  the  Hwang-ho  or  Yellow  River.  The 
greater  portion  of  these  provinces  lies  between  35°  and 
40°  north  latitude;  they  possess  a  dry  and  bracing 


202  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

climate.  Millet  grows  here,  as  do  apples,  pears,  grapes, 
melons,  and  walnuts.  Sheep  and  cattle  are  raised,  and 
the  two-humped  camel  furnishes  transportation.  The 
date  at  which  this  civilization  developed  is  uncertain. 
Chinese  chronographers  have  transmitted  a  list  of 
dynasties  that,  added  end  to  end,  take  us  back  to  2850 
B.C.1  and  tell  us  of  long-lived  mythological  beings  who 
ruled  before  this  time  and  who  invented  the  chief  features 
of  civilization.  Some  scholars  count  all  this  material 
mythological  down  to  about  the  tenth  century  B.C.,2 
though  the  lengths  of  the  various  reigns  as  given  in  the 
lists  are  not  impossibly  long.  The  material  is  neverthe- 
less most  uncertain  before  2258  B.C.,  when  the  Hia 
dynasty  ascended  the  throne.  It  is  said  to  have  ruled 
until  1766  B.C.,  when  it  was  displaced  by  the  Shang  or 
Yin  dynasty,  which  is  said  to  have  held  the  scepter  until 
1 1 22  B.C.  As  both  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  sources 
exaggerate  the  lengths  of  the  reigns  of  the  early  rulers  of 
those  countries,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  Chinese 
sources  do  the  same.  It  may  well  be,  therefore,  that  the 
beginnings  of  its  civilization  do  not  extend  farther  back 
than  2500  B.C. 

The  Chinese  have  no  traditions  concerning  the 
entrance  of  their  ancestors  into  the  country.  Efforts 
have  been  made  by  some  scholars  to  connect  them  with 
the  Sumerians  of  Babylonia,3  or  the  Elamites,4  but  the 
efforts  are  far  from  convincing.  It  is  probable  that  the 

'See  F.  Hirth,  Ancient  History  of  China  (New  York,  1911),  pp.  7 
and  329. 

3  So  H.  A.  Giles,  History  of  Chinese  Literature  (New  York,  1901). 
J  C.  J.  Ball,  Sumerian  and  Chinese  (Oxford,  1914). 
<  So  Lacouperie;  cf.  Hirth,  op.  cit.,  pp.  14  ff. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  203 

Chinese  developed  out  of  the  Mongolian  stock  in  the 
region  where  they  still  live. 

The  Shang  dynasty  was  followed  by  the  imperial 
Chow  dynasty,  1122-249  B.C.  During  this  period 
China,  which  had  been  extended  considerably  beyond 
its  original  borders,  became  a  feudal  state,  whose  nominal 
suzerains  were,  after  about  700  B.C.,  often  unable  to 
control  the  nobles  of  its  component  parts.  Nevertheless, 
by  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  society  was  tolerably  stable 
and  secure,  people  lived  in  well-built  houses,  dressed  hi 
silk  and  homespun,  wore  leather  shoes,  carried  umbrellas, 
sat  on  chairs,  used  tables,  rode  in  carts  and  chariots,  ate 
their  food  from  plates  and  dishes  of  pottery,  and  meas- 
ured time  by  a  sundial.1 

The  Chow  dynasty  was  overthrown  by  the  Prince  of 
Tsui,  the  most  northwesterly  province  of  China,  who 
took  the  name  of  Shi  Hwang-ti,  or  "first  emperor." 
He  built  the  Great  Wall  to  protect  the  country  from 
incursions  of  Tartars  on  the  north,  and  so  impressed 
his  influence  upon  the  country  that,  though  his 
dynasty  fell  in  205  B.C.,  the  name  of  his  province  Tsin 
has  ever  since  been  applied  to  the  whole  country. 
It  is  the  original  of  our  English  name  China. 
Since  its  fall  twenty-one  dynasties  have  ruled  in 
China,  the  last  of  which,  the  Tsing  dynasty,  fell  in 
1912. 

The  dominant  race  first  pushed  its  way  eastward 
along  the  Yellow  River  to  the  sea,  through  the  provinces 
of  Shan-si,  Ho-nan,  and  Shan-tung,  then  southward  to 
the  Yang-tsze-kiang,  then  on  to  the  borders  of  India. 
In  the  course  of  the  centuries  political  ascendency  has 

1  Cf.  Giles,  op.  tit.,  p.  5. 


204  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

also  been  extended  over  Manchuria,  Mongolia,  Eastern 
Turkestan,  and  Tibet. 

169.  The  primitive  popular  religion. — There  is  abun- 
dant evidence  that  when  the  Chinese  civilization 
developed,  the  people  were  in  that  stage  of  evolution 
known  as  animistic,  and  believed  every  object  to  be  the 
abode  of  a  spirit.  Indeed,  this  is  the  belief  of  the  com- 
mon people  of  China  at  the  present  time.  Chinese 
tradition  accounts  for  the  origin  of  the  universe  by  gen- 
eration from  two  souls  or  breaths  called  Yang  and  Yin, 
"the  Yang  representing  light,  warmth,  productivity,  and 
life,  also  the  heavens  from  which  all  these  good  things 
emanate;  and  the  Yin  being  associated  with  darkness, 
cold,  death,  and  the  earth.  The  Yang  is  subdivided 
into  an  indefinite  number  of  good  souls  or  spirits  called 
shen,  the  Yin  into  particles  or  evil  spirits  called  kwei,  or 
specters;  it  is  these  shen  and  kwei  which  animate  every 
being  and  every  thing.  It  is  they  which  constitute  the 
soul  of  man.  His  shen,  also  called  hwan,  immaterial, 
ethereal,  like  heaven  itself,  from  which  it  emanates,  con- 
stitutes his  intellect  and  the  finer  parts  of  his  character, 
his  virtues,  while  his  kwei,  or  poh,  is  thought  to  represent 
his  less  refined  qualities,  his  passions,  vices,  they  being 
borrowed  from  the  material  earth.  Birth  consists  in 
the  infusion  of  these  souls;  death  in  their  departure,  the 
shen  returning  to  Yang  or  heaven,  the  kwei  to  the  Yin  or 
earth."1  The  world  is  crowded  with  shen  and  kwei. 
The  air  swarms  with  evil  spirits  innumerable.  They 
infest  public  roads,  especially  at  night,  play  all  sorts  of 
pranks  upon  people,  and  often  kill  them.  Against  these, 
men  defend  themselves  with  drums,  gongs,  kettles,  bows, 

1 J.  J.  M.  DeGroot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese  (New  York,  1910),  p.  7. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  205 

spears,  and  flaming  torches.  "The  gods  are  shen  who 
animate  heaven,  sun,  moon,  the  stars,  wind,  rain, 
clouds,  thunder,  fire,  the  earth,  seas,  mountains,  rivers, 
rocks,  stones,  animals,  and  plants.  To  these  there  have 
been  added  from  time  immemorial  the  souls  of  deceased 
men,  especially  of  one's  ancestors.  To  this  innumerable 
company  sacrifices  of  food  and  animals  have  been  and 
still  are  offered.  As  among  other  animistic  peoples,  fear 
of  the  kwei  or  demons  appears  to  be  quite  as  potent  as 
fear  of  the  gods  and  ancestors.  However,  the  Chinese 
believe  that  on  the  whole  the  Yang  is  above  the  Yin  as 
the  heaven  is  above  the  earth. 

As  there  was  among  men  a  chief  ruler,  so  among  the 
spirits  there  was  a  Shang-ti  or  supreme  ruler.  Some 
scholars  translate  this  " God"  and  hold  that  the  Chinese 
had  attained  monotheism  at  a  very  early  time.  As  Shun, 
the  second  of  China's  historic  kings  (2258-2206  B.C.), 
is  said  by  the  Shu  King*  to  have  sacrificed  to 
Shang-ti,  the  Chinese  would  have  attained  monotheism 
at  an  early  date,  were  the  monotheistic  claim  true. 
Shun,  at  the  time  he  sacrificed  to  Shang-ti,  sacrificed 
also  to  six  honored  spirits,  as  well  as  to  hills  and  rivers. 
He  was  accordingly  not  a  monotheist.  The  people 
generally  never  worship  Shang-ti  so  far  as  we  know,  and 
where  Shang-ti  is  mentioned  in  the  Shu  King  it  is  usually 
associated  with  Heaven,2  a  spirit  that  seems  equally 
powerful  with  Shang-ti.  Although  in  one  passage  the 
impartation  of  moral  ideas  to  men  is  attributed  to 
Shang-ti,3  he  is  after  all  but  a  shadowy  ruler,  whose 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  III,  39. 
'Ibid.,  pp.  126,  161,  165. 
» Ibid.,  p.  88. 


206  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

importance  is  soon  overshadowed  by  Heaven.1  In  one 
passage  even  the  earthly  monarch  is  associated  with 
him.  No  Chinese  monotheism  can  be  made  out. 

170.  The  state  religion  of  China  is  based  on  the 
five  canonical  books,  or  the  books  which  Confucius 
rescued  from  the  past  and  transmitted  to  posterity. 
These  are  the  Shu  King,  or  book  of  history,  the  Shi  King, 
or  book  of  odes,  Hsiao  King,  or  book  of  filial  piety,  the 
Yi  King,  or  book  of  changes,  a  book  of  fanciful  state 
philosophy  deducted  from  a  system  of  linear  anagrams, 
and  the  Li  Ki,  or  book  of  rites.  In  its  present  form  the 
state  religion  has  also  been  influenced  by  the  Confucian 
classics,  which  were  collected  by  later  disciples  and 
include  the  works  of  Mencius.  The  emperor  is  thought 
to  be  the  son  of  Heaven,  and  the  state  religion  is  a 
worship  of  Heaven,  Earth,  and  the  spirits  of  the  seasons, 
winds,  sun,  moon,  and  rivers,  on  which  the  prosperity  of 
the  empire  depends.  Heaven  is  apparently  not  regarded 
as  a  personal  being,  but  rather  as  an  ethical  pattern. 
Although  frequently  spoken  of  in  a  monotheistic  fash- 
ion, the  worship  of  Heaven  is  not  monotheism.  Heaven 
is  itself  believed  to  be  composed  of  numerous  spirits, 
and  numerous  spirits  are  worshiped  in  connection  with  it. 
The  state  religion  is  a  kind  of  polydemonism.  Fre- 
quently at  the  annual  worship  of  Heaven  sacrifices  have 
been  offered  to  the  founders  of  dynasties,  and  to  the 
spirit  of  the  sovereign's  predecessor,  as  well  as  to  the 
spirits  of  the  earth,  rivers,  etc. 

The  emperor  was,  until  the  establishment  of  the 
republic  hi  1912,  the  religious  head  of  the  nation.  He 
could  enlarge  the  pantheon  by  increasing  the  number  of 

'  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  III,  99. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  207 

that  were  to  be  venerated,  or  reduce  its  size. 
Upon  the  proper  performance  of  his  religious  duties  the 
prosperity  of  the  whole  empire  was  supposed  to  depend. 
It  was  his  exclusive  right  to  worship  Heaven.  The  per- 
formance of  such  worship  on  the  part  of  local  governors 
was  regarded  as  a  declaration  of  rebellion.  The  local 
governors  each  in  like  manner  worshiped  the  spirits  of 
their  respective  provinces.  The  imperial  sacrifices  to 
Heaven  were  offered  in  the  southern  suburb  of  the 
capital;  those  to  Earth,  in  the  northern.  The  cere- 
monies varied  in  different  dynasties.  The  Li  Ki  states1 
that  the  offering  to  Heaven  was  made  on  the  grand 
altar  with  a  blazing  fire  of  wood;  that  to  Earth,  by 
burying  the  victim  in  the  great  mound.  In  both  cases 
the  victim  was  red.  By  burying  a  sheep  and  a  pig  at 
the  altar  of  Great  Brightness  they  sacrificed  to  the 
seasons.  With  similar  victims  they  sacrificed  to  the 
spirits  of  heat  and  cold,  sun,  moon,  stars,  winds,  flood, 
rain,  mountains,  valleys,  forests,  streams,  etc.  The 
spirits  worshiped  were  not  all  imaginary;  many  of  them 
were  ancestors  of  the  sovereigns  and  princes.  Thus 
according  to  the  Li  K\  kings  and  feudal  princes  erected 
temples  to  father,  grandfather,  great-grandfather,  great- 
great-grandfather,  and  remote  ancestors.  Each  temple 
had  a  raised  altar  surrounded  by  an  open  area.  In  all 
of  these,  sacrifices  were  offered  every  month.  There 
were  two  other  temples  for  more  remote  ancestors  to 
which  the  tablets  of  the  earlier  princes  ol  the  line  were 
gradually  removed  At  these  only  the  seasonal  sacrifices 
were  offered.' 

'  Ibid.,  XXVTII,  202  f 
» Ibid.,  XXVIII,  204  1 


208  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  Chinese  appear  to  have  had  no  way  of  securing 
divine  oracles,  but  there  were  many  forms  of  divination 
practiced  by  emperors  and  feudal  princes.  One  very 
ancient  method  has  come  down  to  us  in  the  Yi  King,  or 
book  of  changes.  The  anagrams  appear  to  us  about  as 
meaningless  as  they  could  well  be,  but,  if  they  were 
originally  figures  made  by  the  falling  of  stalks  or  straws 
of  different  lengths,  one  can  see  why  at  the  dawn  of 
history  they  may  have  been  thought  to  foreshadow 
coming  events. 

The  state  religion  was  perpetuated  down  to  the  fall 
of  the  Manchu  dynasty,  so  that  it  was  possible  for  men 
now  living  to  witness  a  form  of  worship  the  beginnings 
of  which  reach  back  far  into  the  Bronze  Age.  The 
altar  to  Heaven,  constructed  of  three  terraces  of  white 
marble  in  an  inclosure  containing  appropriate  buildings 
for  the  preservation  of  tablets  and  for  the  convenience 
of  the  emperor,  is  entirely  open  to  the  sky.1  It  is 
situated  on  the  south  of  Peking  about  three  miles  from 
the  royal  palace  in  a  park  of  some  five  hundred  acres 
surrounded  by  a  brick  wall  fifteen  feet  high.  The  altar 
itself,  together  with  the  buildings  mentioned,  is  sur- 
rounded by  an  inner  wall.  Here  on  the  morning  of  the 
winter  solstice  the  emperor,  having  passed  the  night  in 
the  Hall  of  Abstinence  near  the  altar,  hi  the  gray  dawn 
ascended  the  altar,  prostrated  himself  hi  the  prescribed 
manner  and  presented  prayers  to  Heaven,  sun,  moon, 
stars,  and  planets,  and  to  his  ancestors.  Tablets  to  all 
these  had  been  placed  upon  altars  appropriately  erected 
on  the  different  terraces,  while  in  a  great  furnace,  near 

1  See  Henry  Blodget's  full  description  in  the  Journal  of  the  American 
Oriental  Society,  XX,  58-60 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  209 

by,  a  sacrificial  holocaust  was  burned.  The  altar  to 
Earth  is  at  the  north  of  the  city  in  a  park  of  about  three 
hundred  acres  two  miles  from  the  imperial  palace.  It 
is  square  and  built  in  two  terraces  of  dark-colored  marble. 
In  the  dawn  of  the  day  of  the  summer  solstice  the 
emperor  here  in  a  similar  way  worshiped  Earth,  two 
mountains,  three  hills,  four  seas,  and  four  great  rivers. 
Both  services  were  accompanied  by  music,  and  are  said 
to  have  been  simple  and  invested  with  a  high  degree  of 
reverence  and  solemnity. 

171.  Confucius  and  Confucianism. — The  most  influ- 
ential man  in  the  whole  history  of  China  is  Kcung- 
futze,  or  "master  Kcung,"  whose  name  is  Latinized  as 
Confucius.  He  was  born  in  551  B.C.  hi  the  little  state  of 
Lu  hi  the  territory  of  the  modern  province  of  Shan-tung. 
Little  is  known  of  his  early  life.  "At  the  age  of  fifteen 
he  bent  his  mind  to  learning."  When  he  was  nineteen 
he  married,  but  the  marriage  was  not  a  happy  one, 
and  he  afterward  divorced  his  wife.  The  necessity  of 
supporting  his  family  (his  wife  bore  him  a  son)  led  him 
to  accept  the  office  of  keeper  of  the  stores  of  grain,  but  at 
twenty-two  he  was  released  from  the  cares  of  office  and 
became  a  teacher — an  occupation  in  which  he  passed 
the  rest  of  his  life.  In  teaching  he  found  time  to  study. 
He  made  the  past,  its  history,  records,  and  institutions, 
the  object  of  his  loving  research.  The  state  with  its 
order  and  glory  filled  him  with  admiration.  To  order 
it,  as  well  as  the  lives  of  its  citizens,  aright  was  the  aim 
of  his  teaching.  He  thus  became  a  great  moral  and 
political  philosopher.  By  thirty  he  "stood  firm,"  he 
tells  us;  that  is,  he  had  formed  opinions  of  his  own. 
About  this  time  his  fame  so  increased  that  many  noble 


2io  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

youths  enrolled  themselves  as  his  pupils.  As  years 
passed,  his  pupils  increased;  at  one  tune  their  number 
is  said  to  have  been  three  thousand.  The  life  of  Con- 
fucius fell  hi  the  feudal  period,  at  a  time  when  the  central 
power  found  it  difficult  to  maintain  its  authority  over 
strong  nobles. 

In  517  B.C.  Confucius  visited  the  city  of  Lu,  the 
capital  of  the  empire,  where  he  was  able  to  see  the  altars 
on  which  Heaven  and  Earth  were  worshiped,  and  where 
he  could  inquire  more  carefully  into  the  history  and 
precedents  of  the  Chow  dynasty.  At  Lu  he  is  said  to 
have  had  an  interview  with  Lao-tze,  China's  other  great 
sage,  who  was  then  an  old  man.  In  516  Confucius 
followed  his  sovereign  into  exile  in  the  neighboring  state 
of  Ts'i,  but,  finding  that  he  could  be  of  little  service,  he 
returned  to  Lu  the  next  year.  By  the  year  500  some 
degree  of  order  was  restored  and  Confucius  was  appointed 
ruler  of  the  town  of  Chang-tu,  where  he  soon  effected 
great  reforms.  From  this  post  he  became  superintend- 
ent of  public  works  and  later  minister  of  crime.  In  the 
first  office  he  effected  great  improvements  hi  agriculture; 
hi  the  second  his  admirers  say  that  he  abolished  crime. 
Nevertheless,  in  495  he  abandoned  office  because  his 
sovereign  did  not  live  up  to  his  high  ideals.  The  next 
thirteen  years  were  spent  by  Confucius  in  wandering 
from  state  to  state,  accompanied  by  a  group  of  pupils. 
He  hoped  to  find  a  prince  who  would  listen  to  his  coun- 
sels, but  hoped  in  vain.  In  483  B.C.  he  returned  to  the 
state  of  Lu,  but  did  not  re-enter  public  life.  He  died  in 
478  B.C. 

Confucius  left  behind  him  a  group  of  devoted  pupils 
and  the  five  Chinese  canonical  books,  which  he  had 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  211 

collected  and  edited.  His  pupils  collected  a  book  of 
memorabilia  of  their  master  known  as  the  Lun  Yu 
or  Analects.  It  is  arranged  in  twenty  short  books  or 
chapters,  and  records  in  a  disconnected  way  many  say- 
ings of  the  master.  One  book  of  the  Analects,  the  tenth, 
is  occupied  with  a  description  of  the  personal  appear- 
ance, dress,  and  manners  of  Confucius.  We  learn  from 
this  that  he  was  a  strict  formalist  in  all  things,  careful 
even  as  to  the  posture  hi  which  he  lay  in  bed ! 

Confucius  was  in  no  sense  a  religious  reformer.  To 
the  end  his  religion  was  the  religion  of  his  ancestors. 
The  remote  past  was  to  him  a  golden  age,  and  his  pur- 
pose was  to  perpetuate  some  of  its  golden  characteristics. 
He  aimed  to  establish  a  high  code  of  morals  and  a  pure 
and  efficient  civil  administration.  His  noblest  ethical 
utterance  is  the  negative  form  of  the  Golden  Rule 
quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter.  While  on  the  whole 
his  precepts  inculcate  a  high  order  of  morality,  they 
apply,  like  those  of  the  biblical  Book  of  Proverbs,  to 
the  conduct  of  practical  affairs  and  constitute  neither  a 
system  of  philosophy  nor  a  system  of  theology.  In 
matters  of  civil  administration  Confucius  had  little 
opportunity  to  gain  practical  experience;  he  was  from 
force  of  circumstances  a  theorist,  but  his  insight  into 
administrative  affairs  was  keen  and  his  maxims  sound.1 

A  hundred  years  after  Confucius  died  Mencius  (Meng 
Tze)  was  born.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Confucius,  and 
did  much  to  focus  the  influence  of  the  earlier  teacher. 
Mencius  laid  less  stress  than  his  master  upon  sacrifices 
and  the  worship  of  Heaven  and  more  on  morals.  The 
great  emperor,  Shi-Hwang-ti,  of  the  Tsin  dynasty, 

*  See  Analects,  Book  XIII. 


212  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

endeavored  toward  the  close  of  the  third  century  B.C.  to 
uproot  Confucianism.  He  made  a  systematic  effort  to 
destroy  all  Confucian  books,  but  was  fortunately  not 
completely  successful.  It  was  natural  that  with  the 
accession  of  the  Han  dynasty,  205  B.c.,^there  should  be 
a  reaction  in  favor  of  Confucius,  and  since  that  time  he 
has  grown  steadily  in  favor  of  the  state.  His  teaching 
has  been  expounded  and  developed  by  three  great 
teachers,  the  last  and  greatest  of  whom  was  Chu  Hsi, 
who  lived  from  1130  to  1200  A.D.  In  i  A.D.  Confucius 
was  canonized  as  "Duke  Ni,  the  all  complete  and 
illustrious."  In  57  A.D.  it  was  ordered  that  sacrifices 
should  be  offered  to  him.  In  492  A.D.  he  was  styled 
"the  venerable  Ni,  the  accomplished  Sage."  In  609  a 
temple  was  erected  to  him  at  every  seat  of  learning.  In 
659  he  was  styled  "Kcung,  the  ancient  Teacher,  the 
perfect  Sage."  In  1907  the  late  Empress  Dowager* 
raised  him  to  the  first  grade  of  worship,1  ranking  him 
with  Shang-ti.  In  1915  Yuan  Shi  Kai  made  Confucian- 
ism once  more  the  religion  of  the  state. 

The  philosophy  of  the  Confucian  school,  which  has 
had  much  influence,  not  only  in  China,  but  in  Japan,  is 
that  the  ruling  principle  of  heaven  and  earth  is  virtue. 
"Order  is  Heaven's  only  law."  It  is  relationship  to 
others  in  an  orderly  series  which  gives  value  to  the 
individual.  Order  forms  the  kosmos;  without  it  there 
is  chaos  and  evil.  A  man  exists  only  for  society; 
position  is  more  important  than  personality.  In  the 
state  the  emperor  is  the  pivot;  hi  the  family,  the  father. 
But  even  the  emperor  rules  by  virtue;  if  this  be  want- 

'Cf.  W.   E.   Soothill,   The   Thru  Religions   of  China   (London, 
P-  34- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  213 

ing,  he  is  only  a  usurper,  and  rebellion  against  him  is 
justified. 

172.  Lao-tze  and  Taoism. — Lao-tze  or  Laocius,  the 
second  of  China's  great  sages  in  importance,  was  born 
in  604  B.C.  He  is  said  to  have  lived  to  the  ripe  old  age 
of  eighty  years.  He  was  for  some  years  keeper  of  the 
archives  of  the  imperial  court.  In  his  old  age  Lao-tze, 
on  account  of  the  signs  of  decay  in  the  state,  resigned 
his  position  and  set  out  for  the  West  to  retire  from  the 
world.  When  he  reached  the  frontier  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples, it  is  said,  asked  him  to  write  a  book,  whereupon 
he  wrote  the  Tao  Teh  King.  This  story  comprises  all 
that  we  know  of  the  life  of  Lao-tze,  and,  as  this  comes 
from  a  writer  many  centuries  later,  its  truth  is  involved 
in  considerable  doubt.  Nevertheless  the  Tao  Teh  King 
gives  us  the  oldest  known  form  of  the  teachings  of 
Lao-tze. 

In  the  system  of  Lao-tze  the  great  and  adorable 
thing  is  called  Tao,  a  word  that  is  practically  untrans- 
latable. Perhaps  "Nature"  is  its  nearest  equivalent  in 
English,  though  it  has  been  rendered  "Way,"  "Power," 
"Reason,"  and  even  "God."  To  Lao-tze  the  Tao 
seemed  the  inexpressible  Infinite.  Here  are  some  of 
his  sayings  about  it: 

The  Tao  that  can  be  trodden  is  not  the  enduring  and  unchan- 
ging Tao.1 

He  who  knows  the  Tao  does  not  care  to  speak  about  it;  he 
who  is  ever  ready  to  speak  about  it  does  not  know  it.' 

How  pure  and  still  the  Tao  is,  as  if  it  would  ever  so  continue! 
I  do  not  know  whose  son  it  is.  It  might  appear  to  have  been 
before  Shang-ti.J 

1  Tao  Teh  King  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXIX),  1:7. 
•Ibid.,  56:1.  *Ibid.,  4:3. 


214  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Those  who  know  the  Tao  are  not  extensively  learned;  the 
extensively  learned  do  not  know  it.1 

The  grandest  forms  of  active  force 
From  Tao  come,  their  only  source. 
Who  can  of  Tao  the  nature  tell  ? 
Our  sight  it  flies,  our  touch  as  well. 
Eluding  sight,  eluding  touch, 
The  forms  of  things  all  hi  it  crouch; 
Eluding  touch,  eluding  sight, 
There  are  then*  semblances,  all  right. 
Profound  it  is,  dark  and  obscure; 
Things'  essences  all  there  endure. 
Those  essences  the  truth  enfold 
Of  what,  when  seen,  shall  then  be  told.* 

The  relation  of  the  Tao  to  all  the  world  is  like  that  of  the 
great  rivers  and  seas  to  the  streams  from  the  valleys.3 

All-pervading  is  the  great  Tao!  It  may  be  found  on  the 
left  hand  and  on  the  right.4 

Such  was  Lao-tze's  conception  of  the  great  Absolute 
into  harmony  with  which  man  should  try  to  come. 
The  method  of  attaining  this  harmony  was  in  his  view 
a  self -humiliating  quietism.  Thus  he  says: 

When  its  [the  Tao's]  work  is  accomplished,  it  does  not  claim 

the  name  of  having  done  it Hence  the  sage  is  able  in  the 

same  way  to  accomplish  his  great  achievements.  It  is  through 
his  not  making  himself  great  that  he  can  accomplish  them* 

He  who  is  satisfied  with  his  lot  is  rich.6 

He  [the  sage]  is  free  from  display,  and  therefore  he  shines; 
from  self-assertion,  and  therefore  he  is  distinguished;  from  self- 
boasting,  and  therefore  his  merit  is  acknowledged;  from  self- 
complacency,  and  therefore  he  acquires  superiority.7 

1  Tao  Teh  King  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXIX),  8x:i. 
' Ibid.,  21.  « Ibid.,  34:  i.  *  Ibid.,  33:  x. 

*Ibid.,  32:5.  *Ibid.,  34:2,  3.  ^  Ibid.,  22:2. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  215 

Who  knows  how  white  attracts, 
Yet  always  keeps  himself  within  black's  shade, 
The  pattern  of  humility  displayed, 
Displayed  in  view  of  all  beneath  the  sky; 
He  in  the  unchanging  excellence  arrayed, 
Endless  return  to  man's  first  estate  has  made. 

Who  knows  how  glory  shines, 

Yet  loves  disgrace,  nor  e'er  for  it  is  pale; 

Behold  his  presence  in  a  spacious  vale, 

To  which  men  come  from  all  beneath  the  sky. 

The  unchanging  excellence  completes  its  tale; 

The  simple  infant  man  in  him  we  hail.1 

These  quotations,  like  the  two  from  the  Tao  Teh 
King  which  stand  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  prove  that 
in  a  quietistic  self-effacement  and  lack  of  desire  Lao-tze 
found  the  key  to  salvation.  Like  Confucius,  he  turned 
his  face  toward  the  past.  The  golden  age  of  mankind's 
infancy  was  to  him  the  goal.  The  last  poetical  quota- 
tion made  above  clearly  expresses  this.  To  one  who 
attained  this  "comes  a  kingliness  of  character;  and  he 
who  is  king-like  goes  on  to  be  heaven-like.  In  that 
likeness  to  heaven  he  possesses  the  Tao.  Possessed  of 
the  Tao  he  endures  long."*  Here  we  have  presented 
both  the  primitive  Taoist  idea  of  salvation  and  the 
method  of  its  attainment.  This  attitude  led  Lao-tze  in 
practical  ethics  to  take  higher  ground  than  Confucius. 
His  general  principle  was:  "The  soft  overcomes  the 
hard;  and  the  weak,  the  strong."3  He  once  said:  "I 
have  three  precious  things  that  I  prize  and  hold  fast. 
The  first  is  gentleness;  the  second  is  economy;  and 
the  third  is  shrinking  from  taking  precedence  of  others."4 

*Ibid.,28:i.  *Ibid.,  36:2;  cf.  43:1. 

2  Ibid.,  i6:a.  *Ibid.,  67:2. 


2i6  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Again:  "It  is  the  way  of  the  Tao  ....  to  consider 
what  is  small  as  great,  and  a  few  as  many;  and  to 
recompense  injury  with  kindness."1  He  thus  rose 
almost  to  the  gospel  rule:  "Do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you,"2  and  far  surpassed  Confucius'  negative  form  of 
the  Golden  Rule. 

As  Confucius  had  his  Mencius,  so  Lao-tze  had  a 
faithful  disciple  and  interpreter  in  Kwang-tze,  who  was 
a  contemporary  of  Mencius.  Kwang-tze  possessed  one 
of  the  acutest  minds  China  has  produced,  and  devoted 
all  his  energies  to  the  exposition  and  enforcement  of  the 
teachings  of  Lao-tze.  His  works  rank  next  in  impor- 
tance to  the  Tao  Teh  King  in  the  literature  of  Taoism.3 
He  "was  unable  to  persuade  the  practical  Chinese 
nation  that  by  doing  nothing  all  things  would  be  done." 

Kwang-tze's  method  was  to  unite  opposites.  Thus 
he  says:  "If  the  affirmation  be  according  to  reality  of 
the  fact,  it  is  certainly  different  from  the  denial  of  it — 
there  can  be  no  dispute  about  that.  If  the  assertion  of 
an  opinion  be  correct,  it  is  certainly  different  from  its 
rejection — neither  can  there  be  any  dispute  about  that. 
Let  us  forget  the  lapse  of  time;  let  us  forget  the  conflict 
of  opinions.  Let  us  make  our  appeal  to  the  infinite,  and 
take  up  our  position  there."4  His  idea  seems  to  have 
been  that  by  "ignoring  the  existence  of  contraries  we 
are  embraced  in  the  obliterating  unity  of  God."5  His 

1  Too  Teh  King  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXIX),  63:  i. 

•Luke  6:27. 

» They  are  translated  by  Legge  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
XXXIX  and  XL. 

*  See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXIX,  196. 

*See  H.  A.  Giles,  History  of  Chinese  Literature  (New  York, 
1901),  p.  62. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  217 

description  of  the  Tao  is  in  full  accord  with  that  of  his 
great  teacher,  though  with  greater  philosophical  power 
he  endeavored  to  reach  a  mystical  union  with  it. 

After  Kwang-tze,  Taoism  degenerated  into  the 
bizarre.  This  degeneration  is  said  to  have  been  greatly 
accelerated  by  Chang  Tao  Ling,  born  in  34  A.D.,  whose 
descendants  are  still,  so  to  speak,  Taoist  popes  in  China. 
Taoists  climb  ladders  of  swords,  seek  for  the  elixir  of 
immortality,  and  are  dabblers  in  the  occult.  It  adds 
each  year  fresh  saints  or  gods  to  the  pantheon,  and 
fosters  the  worship  of  those  spirits  and  ancestors  in 
which  the  Chinese  have  always  believed.  The  many 
secret  societies  of  China  are  for  the  most  part  Taoist. 
The  Boxer  organization  was  one  of  these.  Its  tragic 
madness  is  still  of  recent  memory.1 

173.  Buddhism  in  its  northern  form,  Mahayana 
Buddhism,  was  introduced  into  China  hi  the  reign  of 
Ming  Ti,  otherwise  called  Yung  P'ing,  58-76  A.D., 
though  a  knowledge  of  it  had  reached  China  through 
her  trade  with  Nepal  and  India  long  before.  For  two 
and  a  half  centuries  after  its  introduction  into  the 
country  no  Chinese  were  permitted  to  become  monks. 
After  this  condition  was  removed  the  religion  rapidly 
spread.  In  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  centuries 
Fa  Hien,  Yuan  Chwang,  and  I  Tsui  made  pilgrimages 
to  India  and  wrote  accounts  of  what  they  saw.  Bud- 
dhistic works  were  translated  into  Chinese.  In  525  A.D. 
it  is  said  that  Boddhidharma,  the  twenty-eighth  in  the 
list  of  Buddha's  successors,  left  his  native  land  and 
migrated  to  China,  where  he  became  a  kind  of  patriarch 
of  Chinese  Buddhism. 

1 W.  E.  Soothffl,  The  Three  Religions  of  China  (London,  1913),  p.  82. 


218  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Confucianism  was  from  the  beginning  opposed  to 
Buddhism.  The  Buddhistic  order  of  monks  tended  to 
loose  the  bonds  of  the  family  and  the  state,  on  which 
Confucianism  had  always  laid  great  stress.  Finally  in 
the  eighth  century  A.D.  a  state  persecution  of  Buddhists 
compelled  more  than  12,000  monks  to  return  to  secular 
life.  Another  persecution  in  the  ninth  century  destroyed 
4,600  monasteries  and  relegated  to  secular  life  260^600 
monks  and  nuns.  Still  another  in  the  tenth  century 
closed  30,000  temples.  Buddhism  was  not,  however, 
exterminated.  There  were  many  who  found  in  it  that 
which  met  a  spiritual  need. 

Chinese  Buddhism  is  closely  akin  to  that  of  Tibet. 
There  is  the  same  belief  in  Boddhisattwas  and  in  the 
efficacy  of  prayer.  Tibetan  Buddhism  has  taken  up 
the  Hindu  notion  of  hell  and  heaven  as  temporary  abodes 
between  states  of  incarnation.  The  idea  of  transmigra- 
tion has  never  taken  a  deep  root  in  China.  It  is  some- 
what foreign  to  the  national  genius.  The  Buddhistic 
doctrines  of  heaven  and  hell  have,  however,  given  the 
Chinese  an  eschatology  which  neither  Confucianism  nor 
Taoism  supplied. 

The  order  of  monks  has  in  China  degenerated  into  a 
professional  clergy,  who  drone  long  invocations,  twirl 
their  beads,  and  keep  the  lamp  burning  before  the 
shrine  of  Buddha.  Invocation  and  ceremonial  have 
taken  the  place  of  meditation  and  ethical  culture  as 
a  means  of  salvation,  and  the  souls  of  the  departed 
are  believed  to  gain  release  from  hell  only  through 
the  prayers  of  the  priest,  for  which  he  receives  a 
good  fee.1 

1 W.  E.  Soothill,  The  Three  Religions  of  China,  pp.  105  ff. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  219 

174.  The  resultant  religion. — Confucianism,  Taoism, 
and  Buddhism  are  not  mutually  exclusive  religions,  and 
in  China  millions  think  it  better  to  gain  what  benefits 
they  may  from  being  on  good  terms  with  all  three.  One 
does  not  cease  to  be  a  devotee  of  one  religion  by  appro- 
priating the  benefits  of  another.  The  older  religions, 
especially  Taoism,  have  accordingly  been  modified  to 
some  extent  by  Buddhism.  The  popular  conception  of 
the  divine  is  still  the  primitive  polydemonism.  In 
every  household  new  spirits  are  continually  worshiped 
as  ancestors  take  their  place  among  the  departed.  The 
moral  ideals  of  the  early  Chinese  canonical  books  are 
high,  and  these  were  advanced  by  the  Confucian  and 
Taoist  schools.  From  the  earliest  times  of  which  there 
is  record  moral  wrong  was  thought  to  incur  the  punish- 
ment of  Heaven.  Punishment  was,  however,  confined 
to  this  life.  It  naturally  followed  that  misfortune  was 
thought  to  be  the  result  of  some  sin.  The  ordinary 
Chinese  term  for  sin  therefore  does  not  necessarily 
mean  more  than  that  one  is  miserable  or  unfortunate. 
Neither  Confucianism  nor  Taoism  carried  punishment 
into  a  life  beyond.  Confucianism  held  that  Heaven 
would  receive  the  good  man,  hence  one  could  be  saved 
by  effort.  No  Confucianist  could  think  of  an  ancestor 
hi  hell;  all  one's  ancestors  took  their  places  as  a  matter 
of  course  in  heaven.  Taoism  taught  a  salvation  by 
quietism,  but  was  equally  silent  as  to  the  fate  of  an  evil 
man  beyond  this  life. 

With  the  coming  of  Mahayana  Buddhism  a  definite 
idea  of  a  future  life  was  introduced,  and  Taoism  at 
least  has  now  taken  over  the  beliefs  in  heaven  and  hell. 
It  has  taken  over  the  Buddhistic  eschatology  and  theory 


220  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  salvation,  but  has  discarded  the  foreign  terminology 
and  instead  substituted  Chinese  names.1  According  to 
the  Buddhist  theory  salvation  should  come  as  the  result 
of  works  crystallizing  hi  character,  but  it  is  often  sought 
through  prayers  and  the  intervention  of  priests.  Even 
Buddhism  has  shared  the  tendency  to  believe  hi  a  multi- 
tude of  spirits  or  gods.  Chief  among  these  is  its  savior, 
Amitabha,  the  coming  Buddha,  and  a  goddess  of  mercy, 
Kuan-yin,  to  whom  both  men  and  women  appeal. 

The  Taoists  hold  three  deities  in  especial  honor: 
Lao-tze,  P'an-ku  (Chaos,  or  the  maker  of  the  world), 
and  Yii  Hwang  Shang  Ti,  a  Taoist  who  was  apotheosized 
by  the  emperor  in  1116  A.D.,  and  who  is  often  popularly 
confused  with  Shang-ti.  In  addition  to  these,  Taoists 
pray  to  Hsi  Wang  Mu,  the  Royal  Mother  of  the  Western 
Paradise,  and  T'ien  Fei,  the  Queen  of  heaven.2 

Sacrifices  are  freely  offered,  the  favorite  victim  being 
a  pig,  but  such  sacrifices  are  not  looked  upon  as  expiating 
sin.  They  are  rather  to  propitiate  a  god  or  a  spirit,  or 
are  thank-offerings  for  favors  already  received.3  Neither 
in  the  state  religion  nor  in  Confucianism  has  a  priest- 
hood ever  developed.  Buddhist  and  Taoist  monks  have 
become  a  sort  of  priesthood,  but,  even  so,  they  are  not 
wholly  analogous  to  the  priesthood  of  other  countries. 
Divination  is  a  very  old  art  in  China,  where  it  has 
always  been  held  that  the  will  of  the  divine  could  be 
disclosed.  In  such  divination  Taoist  monks  and  Bud- 
dhistic monks  and  nuns  profess  to  be  adepts.  The 
favorite  instruments  of  divination  are  stalks  of  grass 

1  Soothill,  The  Three  Religions  of  China,  p.  361. 
9  Ibid.,  pp.  82  and  269  ff. 
» Ibid.,  p.  156. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA  221 

and  tortoise  shells.  The  tortoise  is  to  them  the  emblem 
of  longevity  or  immortality.  The  marks  on  its  back 
are  regarded  as  significant.1  There  was  no  consulting 
of  entrails  as  in  the  West.  There  is  almost  no  trace  of 
phallic  worship,  and  the  Chinese  appear  never  to  have 
sanctioned  such  orgies  as  those  of  the  Semitic  mother- 
goddess,  or  of  the  £iva  £akta  sect  in  India.  Both 
Confucius  and  Lao-tze  have  shared  the  fate  of  Zoroaster, 
Gautama,  Krishna,  and  Mahavira;  they  have  been 
exalted  by  their  followers  from  the  earth  and  given  a 
place  among  the  gods. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  Confucianism  ministers  to  the 
moral  man.  Taoism  deals  chiefly  with  the  problems  of 
the  spirit  forces  which  play  upon  the  present  life  of  men, 
and  Buddhism  makes  vivid  the  future  life  and  thus 
appeals  to  the  religious  sense,  to  the  imagination,  and 
to  devotion.  Confucianism  deals  with  the  visible 
present,  Taoism  with  the  invisible  present,  and  Bud- 
dhism with  the  invisible  future."3  While  this  is  true, 
none  of  these  religions  is  adequate  to  the  needs  of 
Chinese  life.  Confucianism  presents  a  moral  ideal,  but 
offers  no  sufficient  aid  to  its  attainment.  Taoism, 
always  vague,  is,  in  its  modern  debased  form,  a  mass  of 
superstitions  which  hold  the  devotee  in  perpetual  fear. 
Buddhism,  although  its  doctrines  reach  into  the  unseen 
and  its  ideals  are  noble,  has  long  ago  become  formal  and 
traditional.  Its  elaborate  Mahayana  doctrines  are 
received  by  the  mind,  but  are  too  often  impotent  to 
mold  the  life.  Even  in  the  mind  they  are  clouded  by 

'Soothill,  ibid.,  pp.  163-70;  cf.  DeGroot,  The  Religion  of  the 
Chinese,  p.  74. 

'Sherwood  Eddy,  The  Students  of  Asia  (New  York,  1915),  p.  91. 


222  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  superstitions  that  other  forms  of  Chinese  thought 
foster. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  168:    Hirth,  The  Ancient  History  of  China  (New  York, 

1911);    or  S.  Wells  Williams,  A   History  of  China  (New 

York,  1897),  pp.  1-52. 
On  sec.  169:    J.  J.  M.  DeGroot,  The  Religion  of  the  Chinese  (New 

York,  1910),  chaps,  i-iii. 
On  sec.  170:    Blodget,  "The  Worship  of  Heaven  and  Earth  by 

the  Emperor  of  China,"  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental 

Society,  XX,  58-68;  or  W.  E.  Soothffl,  The  Three  Religions 

of  China  (London,  1913),  Lecture  XI. 
On  sees.  171, 172:   J.  Legge,  The  Religions  of  China  (London,  1881) ; 

R.  K.  Douglas,  Confucianism  and,  Taoism  (London,  1900); 

or  J.  J.  M.  DeGroot,  The  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  chaps,  v 

and  vi;  or  Soothill,  Three  Religions  of  China,  Lectures  II  and 

III. 
On  sec.   173:    W.  E.   Soothill,  The  Three  Religions  of  China, 

Lecture  V;  or  J.  J.  M.  DeGroot,  The  Religion  of  the  Chinese, 

chaps,  vi  and  vii. 
On  sec.  174:  W.  E.  Soothill,  The  Three  Religions  of  China,  Lectures 

v-x,xn. 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I,  chaps,  i-v. 


CHAPTER  XH 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN 

Now  of  the  various  offences  to  be  committed  ....  some 
are  of  heaven  and  others  of  earth.  Heavenly  offences  are  the 
breaking  down  of  divisions  between  rice-fields,  filling  up  of  water- 
courses, removing  water-pipes,  flaying  alive,  flaying  backwards. 
....  Earthly  offences  are  the  cutting  of  living  bodies,  the 
cutting  of  dead  bodies,  leprosy,  incest,  calamities  from  creeping 
things,  from  the  high  gods  and  from  high  birds,  killing  of  cattle, 
bewitchments. 

Whensoever  these  offences  are  committed,  for  committed 
they  will  be,  let  the  great  Nakatomi*  clip  heavenly  twigs  at  the 
top  and  clip  them  at  the  bottom,  making  thereof  a  complete  array 
of  one  thousand  stands  for  offerings.  Having  trimmed  rushes  of 
heaven  at  the  top  and  trimmed  them  at  the  bottom,  let  them 
split  them  into  a  manifold  brush.  Then  let  them  recite  this 
great  liturgy. 

When  they  do  so,  the  gods  of  heaven,  thrusting  open  the 
adamantine  doors  of  heaven  and  cleaving  the  many-piled  clouds 
of  heaven  with  an  awful  way-cleaving,  will  approach  and  lend 
ear.  The  gods  of  earth,  ascending  to  the  tops  of  the  high  moun- 
tains and  the  tops  of  the  low  mountains,  sweeping  away  the 
mists  of  high  mountains  and  the  mists  of  low  mountains,  will 
approach  and  lend  ear. — From  the  Norito  Shinto  ritual.* 

175.  The  land,  people,  and  history. — Japan  comprises 
a  group  of  islands,  partly  mountainous,  which  lie  off  the 
eastern  coast  of  Asia.  They  stretch  in  a  curve  from 
about  31°  to  45°  of  north  latitude.  Two  races,  probably 

1  The  name  of  an  early  Japanese  minister  of  state. 
*  From  W.  G.  Ashton,  History  of  Japanese  Literature  (London,  1899), 
pp.  ii  f. 

323 


224  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

both  of  Mongol  stock  (though  ethnologists  differ  about 
it),  occupied  ancient  Japan,  the  Ainu  and  the  Yamato. 
The  Ainu  were  first  in  the  islands;  the  Yamato  appear 
to  have  entered  Japan  by  way  of  Korea.  It  has  recently 
been  shown  that  their  language  is  closely  akin  to  that  of 
Korea,  notwithstanding  striking  differences  in  vocabu- 
lary. Japanese  mythology  and  legendary  lore  begin 
with  the  coming  of  the  Yamato.  They  appear  to  have 
reached  the  central  part  of  the  main  island  in  the  early 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  Japanese  mythological 
chronology  carries  the  time  back  to  the  sixth  or  seventh 
century  B.C.,  but  there  seems  little  ground  for  regarding 
it  as  trustworthy. 

By  the  third  or  fourth  century  of  our  era  the  Yamato 
had  conquered  the  central  portion  of  the  main  island  of 
what  was  afterward  to  be  Japan,  and  that  slow  evolu- 
tion began  which  was  to  produce  the  Japanese  nation. 
The  people  at  this  time  lived  in  huts;  there  were  neither 
cities  nor  temples.  The  huts  were  collected  in  rude 
hamlets.  The  chief  occupations  were  hunting  and 
fishing;  some  rude  agriculture  was  practiced — chiefly 
the  raising  of  rice;  commerce  was  unknown;  iron 
implements  were  used.  The  family  was  only  partially 
organized.  Marriage  was  only  the  open  acknowledg- 
ment of  a  relation  that  had  previously  existed  in  secret. 
There  was  no  definite  distinction  between  marriage 
and  concubinage,  and  not  until  centuries  later  was  such 
a  distinction  established.  A  husband  might  have  such 
wives  as  he  pleased  with  families  in  different  places. 
Marriages  with  half-sisters  (children  of  different  mothers) 
were  not  uncommon,  and  marriages  with  full  sisters  some- 
times occurred. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  225 

From  this  state  the  evolution  was  slow;  it  was  finally 
hastened  by  influences  from  China.  Contact  with  China 
in  the  sixth  century  led  to  the  introduction  into  Japan 
of  the  Chinese  system  of  writing,  and  of  Buddhism.  It 
also  brought  a  knowledge  of  the  Confucian  philosophy, 
which  led  to  the  formulation  of  Shinto,  or  the  state 
religion.  Supported  by  this  the  emperors,  who  were 
now  believed  to  be  descended  from  Izanagi  and  Izanami, 
the  two  primal  deities  who  gave  birth  to  all  the  other 
gods  and  to  the  islands  of  Japan,  began  a  career  of  con- 
quest and  of  vigorous  government.  The  oldest  chronicle 
of  Japanese  history  that  has  come  down  to  us  was 
written  in  712  A.D.  From  that  time  onward  the  record  of 
events  is  fairly  complete.  Through  the  Nara  epoch 
(710-94  A.D.),  when  the  capital  was  changed  with  every 
sovereign,  and  through  the  Heian  epoch  (794-1186  A.D.) 
the  empire  continued  to  grow.  The  custom  of  mak- 
ing imperial  offices  hereditary  in  the  same  family  pre- 
vailed. 

With  officeholders  there  was  no  distinction  between 
public  funds  and  their  own  private  resources.  Thus  a 
powerful  feudal  nobility  developed,  which  at  the  end 
of  the  Heian  era  the  imperial  power  could  no  longer 
control.  In  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Gotoba,  1186- 
99  A.D.,  the  title  of  seii-taislwgun,  or  generalissimo, 
was  conferred  upon  Yoritomo,  a  powerful  noble  of 
Kamakura,  who  thus  became  the  virtual  ruler  of  the 
country.  From  that  tune  until  1868,  except  for  the 
brief  period  between  1339  and  1393,  when  the  imperial 
government  reasserted  itself  and  once  more  controlled 
the  land,  the  real  government  of  the  country  was  in  the 

1  See  K.  Asakawa,  History  of  Japan  (Philadelphia,  1906),  pp.  66  ff. 


226  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

hands  of  nobles,  who  were  called  Shoguns,  an  abbrevia- 
tion of  the  original  title.  From  1186  to  1339  the 
Shoguns  resided  at  Kamakura;  from  1393  to  1573,  at 
Muromachi  in  Kyoto;  from  1573  to  1868  a  Yedo 
family  held  the  Shogunate  and  resided  in  Yedo.  In 
1868  the  imperial  power  was  restored,  and  the  modern 
Japanese  era  began. 

The  tradition  of  the  descent  of  the  emperor  from  the 
gods  clothed  him  through  all  the  centuries  with  such 
respect  that,  though  the  Shoguns  did  not  hesitate  to 
rob  him  of  political  power,  none  of  them  ever  set  him 
aside  or  put  himself  in  place  of  an  emperor.  During 
the  feudal  period  many  wars  were  waged,  and  a  class 
of  knightly  warriors  called  samurai  was  developed. 
The  knightly  code  of  this  class,  known  as  Bushido, 
represents  Japanese  ethics  in  its  highest  development. 

176.  The  primitive  religion  of  the  Japanese  was  of  the 
rudest  sort.  The  conception  of  animate  life  enter- 
tained by  the  early  Japanese  was  that  men,  animals,  and 
gods  (if  gods  they  can  be  called)  formed  one  society. 
In  reality  kami,  often  translated  "god,"  means  simply 
a  marvelous  or  wonderful  being.  A  Japanese  scholar 
declares  that  kami  "lies  between  super-man  and  super- 
human being."1  Kami  was  applied  to  the  sun,  the 
heavens,  the  winds;  but  it  was  also  applied  to  human 
beings,  beasts,  plants,  trees,  seas,  mountains,  and  to  all 
other  things  that  excite  wonder  or  fear.  The  kami  of 
the  earliest  time  are  for  the  most  part  human  beings, 
though  the  fox  and  serpent  are  also  kami.  The  wolf 
and  tiger  were  kami;  it  is  also  sometimes  applied  to 
peaches,  jewels,  and  the  leaves  of  plants.  It  thus 

1  Sec  I.  Nitober  The  Japanese  Nathn  (New  York,  191  a),  p.  133. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  227 

appears  that  the  early  Japanese  conception  of  the 
divine  was  of  a  most  rudimentary  nature.  Whatever 
excited  wonder  and  fear  they  reverenced.  To  them,  as 
to  the  Semites,  the  mystery  of  the  propagation  of  life 
was  most  marvelous.  Phallic  emblems  accordingly 
were  widely  employed  as  symbols  of  the  divine.  To 
them  as  to  the  primitive  Semites  the  mystery  of  father- 
hood and  motherhood  was  the  mystery  of  creation.1 
In  reverencing  the  symbols  of  these  they  reverenced 
the  divine  in  one  of  its  most  wonderful  and  beneficent 
forms.  They  put  no  wide  difference  between  them- 
selves and  a  transcendent  creator,  for  their  minds  had 
not  grasped  the  idea  of  such  a  creator.  Among  such 
primitive  men  these  symbols  cannot  be  regarded  as 
obscene;  they  represented  one  of  the  most  potent 
manifestations  of  the  supernatural,  and  they  excited 
in  them  as  much  reverence  as  they  were  capable  of  feel- 
ing toward  anything. 

The  objects  of  worship  of  the  early  Japanese  were, 
then,  the  mysterious  processes  of  nature  and  her  awe- 
inspiring  phenomena — heavenly  bodies,  sky,  mountains, 
and  rivers.  Of  these  they  appear  to  have  made  no  rep- 
resentations, for  the  originals  were  always  with  them. 
The  one  exception  seems  to  be  the  mirror,  the  symbol 
of  the  sun-goddess,  in  which  she  was  worshiped  as 
though  herself  present.2 

To  these  men  the  universe  was  small.  Heaven  was 
so  near  that  it  had  been  reached  by  an  arrow  which  made 

'See  E.  Buckley,  Phallicism  in  Japan  (Chicago,  1895);  W.  E. 
Griffis,  The  Religions  of  Japan  (New  York,  1895),  pp.  27  ff. 

*  Compare  G.  W.  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan 
(New  York,  1907),  p.  31. 


228  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

a  hole  in  its  bottom,  from  which  objects  fell  to  the  earth, 
where  they  are  still  found.  Heaven  and  earth  were 
formerly  connected  by  a  bridge,  but  that  had,  unfortu- 
nately, fallen  down.  The  underworld  was  a  cavern  in 
the  earth,  the  entrance  to  which  was  formerly  open, 
though  now  blocked  by  a  large  rock.  Heaven  is  like 
the  earth;  the  spirits  that  dwell  in  it  gather  in  the  dry 
beds  of  rivers  for  consultation.  The  underworld  is, 
according  to  some  legends,  also  similar  to  the  earth;  it 
contains  meadows,  rivers,  and  dwellings  large  and  small. 

Not  in  heaven,  earth,  or  the  underworld  were  the 
divisions  between  the  orders  of  life  fixed.  "  Fishes, 
beasts,  birds,  and  serpents  acted  and  spoke  as  men." 
"Crocodiles  or  sea-monsters  became  women,  and  men 
became  birds,  a  rock  fled  before  a  man,  the  sun  was  at 
once  the  orb  of  day  and  a  goddess  who  could  be  enticed 
from  retiracy  by  an  appeal  to  her  vanity,  while  the  moon 
and  the  storm  were  beings  who  acted  like  men."1  There 
was  no  distinction  between  men  and  inanimate  nature. 
A  goddess  is  only  a  wonderful  woman,  but  she  gives 
birth  to  fire.  The  Japanese  of  this  period  recognized  no 
distinction  between  body  and  soul.  Man  was  man,  and 
that  was  all.  Many  myths  grew  up  to  account  for  the 
facts  of  life  as  they  knew  it,  but  there  is  little  of  religion 
in  it  all.  They  betray  no  idea  of  a  creator;  the  world 
was  produced  by  natural  generation  from  a  god  and  a 
goddess,  or  a  male  and  a  female  kami.  No  conscious- 
ness of  sin  can  be  detected,  and  consequently  there  was 
no  conception  of  redemption.  There  was  not  even  the 
idea  of  a  soul.  Such  religion  as  there  was  consisted 
solely  of  awe  in  the  presence  of  the  marvelous. 

1  See  Knox.  op.  tit.,  p  18. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  229 

177.  Shinto,  or  the  "way  of  the  gods,"  is  the  elabora- 
tion and  organization  of  the  primitive  beliefs  in  the 
interest  of  the  reigning  house.  The  term  "Shinto"  is 
Chinese,  and  was  employed  by  Confucius  centuries 
before  its  adoption  by  the  Japanese.  Shinto  was 
developed  hi  the  seventh  or  eighth  century.  By  that 
time  the  dynasty  that  still  reigns  in  Japan  had  obtained 
considerable  power  over  the  previously  disorganized 
country.  Intercourse  with  China  had  been  estab- 
lished; Buddhism  was  coming  in,  and  with  it  some 
knowledge  of  Confucianism.  The  mass  of  the  people 
were,  however,  still  imbued  with  their  ancestral  con- 
ceptions, and  to  bind  them  to  the  reigning  family  the 
old  cosmogonic  myth  was  retold  and  elaborated. 
According  to  this  myth  Izanagi,  the  primal  male 
deity,  and  Izanami,  the  primal  female  deity,  had  by 
natural  generation  brought  forth  the  other  gods  and  the 
Islands  of  Japan.  The  genealogy  was  now  extended 
so  that  it  appeared  that  through  a  line  of  divine 
ancestors  the  imperial  family  (to  use  a  later  term) 
was  descended  from  these  same  gods.  Thus  the 
natural  reverence  for  the  spirits  in  which  their  fore- 
fathers had  believed  was  focused  upon  the  reigning 
dynasty. 

Along  with  this  older  worship  there  went  as  a  natural 
development,  under  Chinese  influence,  an  increased 
reverence  for  departed  ancestors.  This  became  pos- 
sible because,  under  the  stimulus  of  the  Confucian  rever- 
ence for  the  family,  Japanese  marriage  became  somewhat 
more  regulated,  the  family  attained  greater  cohesion, 
and  ancestors  were  in  tune  regarded  with  reverence. 
Little  by  little  they  took  their  places  next  to  the  kami 


230  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  were  reverenced  also.  Thus  in  Shinto  doctrine 
man  is  in  this  life  kindred  to  the  divine,  and  after  death 
joins  the  company  of  those  who  are  to  be  reverenced. 
The  deities  of  the  Shinto  pantheon  range  from  the  most 
insignificant  gods,  "whom  pious  spinsters  respect  as  the 
spirits  of  sewing-needles  or  those  to  whom  kitchen  maids 
do  homage  as  residing  in  the  furnace,  up  to  those  who 
roar  in  thunder,  or  shine  in  lightning,  or  ride  upon  the 
whirlwind.  Shinto  is  the  most  polytheistic  of  poly- 
theisms."1 The  Shintoist  does  not  "pray  for  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  but  for  the  sweet  things  of  this  life,  for 
happiness,  but  not  for  blessedness."2  The  worshiper 
may  be  conscious  that  his  heart  is  not  of  a  divine 
quality  of  purity,  but  "he  can  of  his  own  accord  blow 
it  off  like  dust,  or  wash  it  off  like  a  stain,  and  regain 
purity."3 

The  shrines  of  Shinto  are  unusually  simple.  They 
are  the  plainest  of  wooden  structures,  "of  an  ancient 
form  of  architecture,  unpainted  and  undecorated, 
usually  in  the  shade  of  cryptomeria  groves."  The 
chief  ministers  of  religion  in  Shinto  belonged  to  particu- 
lar families,  upon  whom  the  emperor  often  bestowed 
offices  and  titles.  They  married,  dressed  like  others, 
and  were  in  no  way  distinguishable  from  other  men, 
except  when  officiating  at  Shinto  rites.  At  some  of  the 
shrines  there  were  virgin  priestesses  who  acted  as 
custodians.4  Offerings,  consisting  of  fruits,  products  of 
the  soil,  products  of  the  sea,  and  fabrics  of  the  loom, 

1  Nitobe,  The  Japanese  Nation,  p.  131. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  124. 

*Ibid.,  p.  128. 

'Griffis,  The  Religions  of  Japan,  p.  84. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  231 

were  made  in  ancient  times.  These  are  now  often 
reduced  to  paper  imitations.1 

Shinto  has  little  teaching  for  the  conduct  of  private 
individuals.  The  god  of  Fujiyama  is  said  to  have 
enjoined  upon  his  followers  the  following:  "Ye  men 
of  mine,  shun  desire.  If  you  shun  desire  you  will 
ascend  to  the  level  of  the  gods.  Every  little  yielding  to 
anxiety  is  a  step  away  from  the  natural  heart  of  man. 
If  one  leaves  the  natural  heart  of  man  he  becomes  a 
beast.  That  men  should  be  made  so  is  to  me  intoler- 
able pain  and  unending  sorrow."*  Such  statements 
are,  however,  generally  wanting  in  Shinto  documents. 
Japanese  ethics  has  been  developed  by  other  systems. 
The  rituals  consist  largely  of  adoration  and  thanks- 
giving. Such  prayers  as  it  affords  are  national  rather 
than  individual.  In  the  complete  form  of  Shinto 
prayers  the  emperor  appears  as  the  high  priest  of  his 
people.  Just  as  the  emperor  of  China  worships  heaven 
and  earth,  so  the  emperor  of  Japan  intervenes  between 
the  kami  and  the  nation. 

The  organization  of  the  primitive  beliefs  into  Shinto 
never  took  deep  hold  of  the  nation  as  a  whole;  it 
remained  the  religion  of  the  few.  It  had  sufficient 
power  to  sustain  the  imperial  line  as  a  figurative  head 
of  the  nation  during  the  centuries  of  feudal  rule,  and 
probably  had  some  influence  in  bringing  about  the 
restoration  of  the  imperial  line  to  power  in  1868. 
Since  that  tune  Shinto  has  called  forth  from  its 
modern  devotees  some  ingenious  defenses.  Men 
skilled  in  modern  dialectics,  and  possessing  some 

'Ibid.,  p.  83. 

*  Nitobe,  The  Japanese  Nation,  p.  134. 


232  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

knowledge  of  science,  have  defended  its  stories  and 
its  miracles.1 

178.  Buddhism  was  introduced  into  Japan  in  the 
sixth  century  A.D.  Its  coming  was  at  first  resisted  by 
the  people,  and  the  images  of  the  Buddha  were  destroyed, 
but  in  584,  when  a  plague  of  smallpox  grew  worse  after 
the  image  of  Buddha  had  been  thrown  into  a  canal,  the 
image  was  rescued  and  set  up  with  the  approval  of  the 
emperor.2  At  first  the  Japanese  were  averse  to  it,  but 
the  Buddhist  priests  declared  that  the  Japanese  kami 
were  Buddhas  or  Boddhisattwas,  and  the  new  faith  was 
reconciled  to  the  old.  Buddhism  thus  became  the  pre- 
dominant religion  of  the  Japanese  down  to  modern  times. 
The  rapid  assimilation  of  Buddhism,  which  was  the 
religion  of  all  the  civilized  world  known  to  the  Japanese 
(Korea,  hoary  China,  and  far-away  India),  was  quite 
analogous  to  the  way  in  which  in  recent  time  Japan  has 
assimilated  Western  civilization  and  science  because 
they  were  the  possessions  of  the  civilized  world.  Japa- 
nese Buddhism,  brought  from  China  by  way  of  Korea, 
was  of  the  Mahayana  type,  called  hi  Japanese  Daijo. 
This  form  of  Buddhism  established  the  belief  that 
Gautama  passed  through  five  periods  of  existence,  hi 
the  last  of  which  he  became  identical  with  Absolute 
Being.  It  taught  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  the 
soul,  of  heaven  and  hell,  and  of  salvation  by  prayer.3 
Its  advent  introduced  the  Japanese  to  a  new  world  of 
ideas.  Fostered  by  some  of  the  emperors  in  the  eighth 
century,  it  rapidly  attained  a  position  of  power.  "It 

1  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  pp.  70  ff. 
1 F.  Brinkley,  A  History  of  the  Japanese  People,  pp.  131-35. 
J  See  above,  pp.  174  f.  and  218. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  233 

touched  the  very  fountains  of  thought  and  set  a-flowing 
new  currents  of  ideas.  It  sobered  the  light-hearted 
nature  worshipers.  It  furnished  a  deeper  interpreta- 
tion of  ancestor  worship.  It  created  new  notions  of 
nature  and  life.  It  invented  a  new  vocabulary.  It 
gave  rise  to  new  arts,  trades,  and  crafts.  It  initiated  a 
new  policy  of  government.  It  changed  the  whole  social 
structure.  Indeed  there  was  nothing  that  was  not 
impregnated  with  the  doctrines  of  Gautama."  This  is 
the  tribute  of  Professor  Nitobe,  but  the  doctrines  of 
Mahayana,  which  came  to  Japan,  are  as  different  from 
the  doctrines  of  Gautama  as  the  philosophy  of  Hegel  is 
from  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  ninth  century  Japanese 
Buddhism  began  to  split  into  sects.  The  earliest  of 
these  sects,  the  Tendai,  or  "Heavenly  Command,"1  was 
founded  by  Saicho  (also  called  Dengyo),  a  Buddhist 
saint  who  visited  China  and  there  gained  the  inspira- 
tion which  led  to  the  founding  of  the  sect.  The  metaphys- 
ics of  this  sect  are  thought  by  some  to  be  more  profound 
than  those  of  any  other  section  of  Mahayana  Buddhism. 
An  attempt  is  made  to  combine  the  two  opposites  of 
being  and  non-being.  In  this  there  may  be  discerned 
the  influence  of  Chinese  Taoism  as  interpreted  by 
Kwang-tze.  The  ami  of  the  sect  is  to  lead  its  members 
to  the  attainment  of  perfect  Buddhahood  through  the 
four  stages  of  moral  precept,  meditation,  secrecy,  and 
completion.  The  goal  is  completion.  In  the  pursuit 
of  this  end  the  leaders  of  the  sect  adapt  their  teachings 
to  the  capacity  of  individuals,  after  the  manner  of 
Ignatius  Loyola,  and  have  in  consequence  been  called 

»  So  Nitobe,  The  Japanese  People,  p.  141. 


234  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  Jesuits  of  Buddhism.  One  of  the  aims  of  the  sect 
is  to  search  out  and  reverence  the  Buddha  in  all  his 
manifestations,  and  it  has  found  such  manifestations 
in  Vedic  gods,  Hindu  idols,  and  in  Shinto  kami.  It 
thus  came  about  that  all  Shinto  was  annexed  by  the 
Tendai.  Its  priests  have  intermarried  with  Shinto 
families  in  order  to  secure  by  heredity  control  of  Shinto 
shrines.1  The  all-inclusive  aim  of  the  sect  has  resulted 
in  its  disintegration  into  several  subsects. 

Another  sect,  the  Shingon,  or  "True  Word,"  also 
dates  from  the  ninth  century.  Its  founder,  Kukai 
(canonized  as  Kobo  Daishi),  also  studied  in  China. 
According  to  this  system  the  center  of  all  things  is  Dai 
Nichi, 

identified  by  the  common  people  with  the  sun,  and  around  him 
are  four  Buddhas  of  contemplation  representing  the  highest 
abstractions,  and  around  these  group  after  group  of  significant 
genera  and  species,  until  the  individual  is  reached.  This  is  the 
"diamond"  world,  unchanging  and  real,  while  the  phenomenal 
world  is  also  grouped  about  Dai  Nichi,  who  is  represented,  not 
now  as  the  sun  surrounded  by  four  planets,  but  as  the  center  of  the 
lotus  with  eight  Buddhas  about  him  as  petals.  Thus  he,  or  better 
it,  is  the  center  of  all  things,  real  and  phenomenal,  and  correspond- 
ingly there  are  two  ways  of  salvation,  by  meditation  and  knowl- 
edge, and  by  a  righteous  life.  The  end  of  the  "Way"  is  reached 
when  perfect  knowledge  is  attained  and  the  individual  is  absorbed 
in  the  Infinite.  In  popular  language  we  become  Buddha.  Thus 
was  the  historic  Buddha  himself  absorbed,  and  his  individuality 
disappeared,  so  has  his  distinctive  teaching  and  glory,  for  he 
remains  in  this  system  only  as  one  of  four  Buddhas  of  contem- 
plation, a  symbol  of  abstraction,  one  of  the  last  ideas  which  remain 
before  all  is  swallowed  up  in  the  Absolute.* 

1  Compare  Griffis,  The  Religions  of  Japan,  pp.  244  ff. 
1  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  pp.  99  f . 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  235 

The  absorption  of  Shinto  by  the  Shingon  sect  was 
even  more  easy  and  rapid  than  by  the  Tendai  sect. 
Shinto  did  not  altogether  lose  its  identity,  however,  for 
at  birth  a  child  is  taken  to  a  Shinto  temple  for  conse- 
cration and  blessing,  though  at  death  the  funeral  is 
usually  conducted  by  a  Buddhist  priest. 

The  Jodo,  or  "Pure  Land"  sect,  founded  in  1196  A.D. 
by  Genku,  afterward  called  Honen  Shonin,  is  an  offshoot 
of  the  Tendai  sect.  Genku,  impressed  by  the  evil  of  the 
world  and  the  impossibility  of  doing  right  in  it,  and 
influenced  by  descriptions  of  the  paradise  of  the  West 
that  had  just  reached  Japan,  held  that  it  is  not  possible 
to  reach  Buddhaship  here;  one  must  first  attain  the 
"Pure  Land."  That  land  may  be  attained  in  another 
world,  if  one  has  faith  in  Amida,  or  Buddha  the  Savior. 
Blind  faith  in  Amida,  combined  with  ceaseless  repetition 
of  pious  formulae  (for  faith  must  find  expression  in 
ritual),  will  lead  to  birth  in  Amida's  Paradise  after 
death.  No  change  of  heart  is  necessary  here;  but 
there  one  may  have  a  chance  at  Buddhahood.  The  doc- 
trine offered  a  cheap  ticket  to  paradise  and  became 
very  popular. 

The  Jodo  Shin-shu,  or  "True  Sect  of  Jodo,"  often 
called  simply  Shin-shu,  was  established  in  1224  A.D. 
through  the  efforts  of  Shinran,  a  pupil  of  Genku.  This 
sect  lays  emphasis  on  faith  alone.  If  faith  saves,  neither 
ritual  nor  works  avail.  One  needs  no  knowledge  of 
metaphysics,  one  need  perform  no  acts  of  religious  devo- 
tion, there  is  no  need  to  keep  a  multitude  of  command- 
ments, one  need  not  leave  home,  renounce  matrimony, 
or  live  by  rule.  Faith  will  accomplish  all,  if  one  wor- 
ships Amida  only,  and  prays  for  nothing  that  does  not 


236  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

concern  salvation.  Whereas  Jodo  teaches  that  Amida 
will  come  only  at  death,  Shin-shu  holds  that  Amida 
dwells  in  the  heart  by  faith  now.  In  this  teaching  it 
has  been  said  that  Buddhism  completed  a  cycle,  deny- 
ing everything  that  its  founder  affirmed,  and  affirming 
everything  that  he  denied.1 

A  different  line  of  development  is  represented  by  the 
Zen  sect,  founded  about  1187  by  Eisai,  a  monk  who  in 
1 1 68  had  been  in  China  to  study.  Zen  is  a  Japanese 
translation  of  the  Sanskrit  Dhyana,  "contemplation." 
Knowledge,  Eisai  held,  can  be  transmitted  without 
words.  It  may  be  reached  only  by  contemplation. 
The  essential  thing  is  to  find  the  Buddha  in  one's  own 
heart.  In  order  to  find  it,  one  must  grasp  the  "fact  of 
utter  and  entire  void."  The  motto  was  in  theory, 

Oh  to  be  nothing!  nothing!2 

About  1223  two  other  teachers,  after  a  visit  to  China, 
introduced  into  the  Zen  teaching  the  elements  of  scholar- 
ship and  research.  These  together  with  contemplation 
were  the  way  to  the  goal.  Strange  to  say,  this  mystical 
sect  became  very  popular  with  the  samurai,  or  Japanese 
warriors.  Its  teachings  stripped  all  things  of  their  qual- 
ities to  such  a  degree  that  death  was  robbed  of  its 
terrors,  while  its  ritual  of  mere  contemplation  did  not 
interfere  with  the  activities  of  a  soldier. 

The  Nichiren  sect,  named  after  its  founder,  Nichiren, 
who  was  born  in  1222  A.D.,  embodies  a  violent  reaction 
from  the  Jodo  and  Shin-shu  sects.  It  alone  of  the  Bud- 
dhist sects  in  Japan  is  intolerant.  "Japan  for  the 

1  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  p.  133. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  100. 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  237 

Japanese"  might  well  have  been  the  motto  of  its  founder. 
He  had  been  a  student  of  the  Saddharma-Pundarika,  or 
the  "Lotus  of  the  True  Law,"  from  which  he  selected 
various  phrases,  which  were  believed  to  constitute  a 
formula  of  salvation.  He  became  a  kind  of  Buddhist 
evangelist,  preaching  this  type  of  salvation  to  the  com- 
mon people.  The  true  Buddha  is  the  source  of  all 
existence;  he  is  the  real  moon  in  the  sky;  all  other 
states  of  being  are  like  the  moon  reflected  in  the  water. 
The  kami  and  all  Japanese  spirits  are  Buddhas.  Indeed, 
beasts,  birds,  and  snakes  are  honored  by  this  sect. 
Nichiren  denounced  all  other  sects,  characterizing  the 
Zen  as  a  demon  and  the  Shingon  as  national  ruin.1 
After  a  stormy  career  he  ended  his  life  in  peace,  but 
bequeathed  his  contentious  spirit  to  his  sect.  The  sect 
has  made  its  founder  an  object  of  worship,  embellishing 
his  life  with  many  marvels;  it  worships  his  writings, 
and  has  through  all  its  history  been  intolerant  and 
violent. 

179.  Confucianism  became  known  in  Japan  as  early 
as  Buddhism  if  not  earlier,  and  has  had  a  profound 
influence  upon  Japanese  life.  Japan  has  always  been 
ready  to  respond  to  the  stimulus  of  a  higher  civilization 
when  once  that  stimulus  has  been  felt,  and  such  stimu- 
lus came  to  it  from  China  in  the  sixth  century  of  our 
era.  To  the  rude  Japanese  of  that  time  China  was  a 
land  of  hoary  antiquity  and  of  immemorial  culture. 
The  civilization  of  China  naturally  became  a  pattern 
to  the  Japanese.  In  China  the  whole  organization  of 
the  state  and  family  was  pervaded  by  Confucian  ideals. 
Though  Confucius  had  sought  only  to  regulate  these, 

1  F.  Brinkley,  History  of  the  Japanese  People,  p.  372. 


238  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  to  stimulate  reverence  for  them,  a  stable  govern- 
ment presided  over  by  a  Son  of  Heaven  and  a  well- 
organized  family  in  which  children  reverenced  parents, 
obeyed  them,  and  sacrificed  themselves  for  them,  were 
fundamental  to  his  system  of  thought.  Such  a  state 
and  family  China  presented  to  the  Japanese  as  a  model. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  ideal,  Japan,  as  has  already 
been  pointed  out,  developed  Shinto,  to  strengthen  her 
ruling  dynasty  and  to  give  the  emperor  in  a  purely 
Japanese  system  a  place  as  exalted  as  that  held  by  the 
Chinese  emperor.  The  same  influence  led  to  a  better 
organization  of  the  Japanese  family  and  the  inculcation 
of  filial  piety.  In  Japan,  however,  this  piety  took  on  a 
different  aspect  and  tone  from  that  in  China.  China 
was  on  the  whole  a  peaceful  land;  Japan  was  disturbed 
by  continual  strife.  Filial  piety  in  Japan  assumed  a 
martial  coloring  thoroughly  in  keeping  with  the  Japanese 
environment  and  character. 

In  China  the  emperor  ruled  by  virtue,  and  if  he  were 
not  virtuous,  Confucianism  recognized  the  right  of 
rebellion.  In  Japan  he  ruled  by  conquest,  and  no  right 
of  rebellion  was  recognized.  The  ethics  of  Confucius 
as  understood  hi  Japan  were  for  a  ruling  race;  for  the 
common  man  there  was  left  nothing  but  obedience. 
When  the  necessity  of  virtue  in  the  ruler  was  no  longer 
recognized,  there  was  no  restraint  upon  him,  and 
tyranny  naturally  resulted.  In  the  feudal  age  this 
Japanese  interpretation  of  Confucianism  as  applied  by 
the  samurai,  or  warrior  class,  produced  the  ethical  sys- 
tem of  Bushido,  or  "military-knight  ways,"  so  attract- 
ively described  by  Professor  Nitobe.1  The  ethics  of 

1 1.  Nitobe,  Bushido,  the  Soul  of  Japan  (Philadelphia,  1900). 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  239 

Bushido,  while  they  inculcate  marvelous  self-control, 
loyalty,  chivalry,  gentleness,  and  honor  to  those  within 
one's  circle,  leave  the  warrior  free  to  practice  any  deceit 
or  fraud  for  the  sake  of  overcoming  an  enemy.1  There 
is  in  the  conduct  expected  of  the  soldier  a  defect  similar 
to  the  defect  in  that  prescribed  by  Japanese  Confucian- 
ism for  an  emperor. 

In  Chinese  filial  piety  the  family  is  the  institution 
which  demands  the  loyalty  of  children.  The  ideal  Con- 
fucian son  is  one  who  labors  and  sacrifices  to  support 
needy  parents.  This  idea  was  adopted  hi  Japan,  but 
was  given  a  wider  scope.  It  was  made  to  apply  to  the 
state  as  well  as  to  a  family.  It  inculcated  for  all  rela- 
tionships of  life  the  self-sacrifice  of  an  inferior  to  a 
superior.  This  was  carried  to  such  lengths  in  the 
family  that  a  daughter  was  commended  for  selling  her- 
self to  a  life  of  shame  for  the  sake  of  supplying  the  wants 
of  a  needy  father.  Boys  and  men  were  in  a  similar  way 
expected  to  sacrifice  themselves  for  a  superior  and  for 
the  state.  To  endure  the  hardships  incident  to  war — 
hunger,  cold,  fatigue — and  to  meet  death  without  fear 
became  the  manly  virtues  that  were  most  commended. 
In  time  loyalty  to  one's  superior  was  thought  to  involve 
the  refusal  to  live  after  that  superior's  death,  hence  the 
form  of  suicide  known  as  hara-kiri,  or  disembowelment, 
was  often  commended.  The  emphasis  led  frequently  to 
suicide  for  trivial  causes.  In  such  ways  as  these  the 
fruits  of  Confucianism  in  Japan  were  very  different 
from  its  fruits  in  China.  In  Japan  it  applied  only  to 
the  upper  classes;  the  peasantry  was  left  with  an  ethical 
code  almost  as  vague  as  in  primitive  times. 

1  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  pp.  151  3. 


240  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

There  lived  in  China  in  1 130-1 200  A.D.  an  exceed- 
ingly influential  commentator  on  Confucius  named  Chu 
Hsi.  In  interpreting  Confucius,  Chu  Hsi  aimed  at  con- 
sistency, but  he  also  taught  that  Confucius  held  man  to 
be  superior  to  spirits  and  demons.  Chu  Hsi  accord- 
ingly denied  that  Shang-ti  was  a  supreme  ruler  whom 
men  must  particularly  honor.  About  1604  his  teach- 
ings were  introduced  into  Japan  and  became  the  orthodox 
method  of  interpreting  Confucius  there.  Probably  the 
majority  of  educated  Japanese  at  the  present  time  are 
Confucianists  of  this  type.  Religion,  whether  of  the 
primitive  sort  or  of  the  Buddhistic  variety,  is  regarded 
as  superstition.  The  worship  which  a  Confucianist  per- 
forms before  the  tablet  of  an  ancestor  or  a  sage  signifies 
little  more  than  our  lifting  of  the  hat  at  the  tomb  of  a 
hero  or  saint.  For  the  rest  Confucianist  worship  is 
adoration  of  the  universe  and  the  expression  of  gratitude 
to  it. 

Such  has  been  the  religious  history  of  Japan.  Bud- 
dhism was  disestablished  in  1872;  Christianity,  though 
now  a  power  in  the  empire,  has  not  yet  been  recognized 
by  law  as  on  an  equality  with  the  older  systems.  In 
conclusion,  it  may  be  observed  that  Japan  has  made  no 
really  great  contribution  to  the  world's  religion.  Her 
own  religion  was  of  the  most  rudimentary  character, 
and  the  influence  of  Confucianism  upon  it,  although  it 
gave  coherence  and  a  system  of  ethics,  nevertheless 
scarcely  made  the  Japanese  conceptions  a  religion. 
Buddhism  alone  has  been  creative,  but  its  creative 
impulses  have  all  been  derived  from  China.  The 
readiness  with  which  Buddhism  identified  its  Boddhis- 
attwas  with  the  Japanese  kami  led  it  to  absorb  the  prim- 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  JAPAN  241 

itive  Japanese  superstitions.  While  Buddhism  greatly 
stimulated  Japanese  thought,  and  was  by  far  the  most 
inspiring  of  the  religions  of  ancient  Japan,  its  sects  either 
thought  too  much  of  the  life  to  come,  or  were  too  anxious 
to  be  "nothing,  nothing,"  to  raise  the  present  life  to  its 
highest  potency. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  175:  A.  Asakawa,  "Japan,"  in  H.  C.  Lodge's  History  of 
the  Nations  (Philadelphia,  1906) ;  or  F.  Brinkley,  A  History  of 
the  Japanese  People  (London,  1915). 

On  sees.  176-79:  G.  W.  Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in 
Japan  (New  York,  1907). 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  I,  chaps,  vi,  vii. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE 

lo,  Kuros1  most  Great,  I  give  thee  hail,  Kronian,  Lord  of  all 
that  is  wet  and  gleaming,  thou  art  come  at  the  head  of  thy 
Daimones.  To  Dikte  for  the  year,  Oh,  march,  and  rejoice  in  the 

dance  and  song For  here  the  shielded  Nurturers  took 

thee,  a  child  immortal,  from  Rhea,  and  with  noise  of  beating  feet 
hid  thee  away. — Fragment  of  a  hymn  of  the  Kouretes.' 

They  celebrate  aegis-bearing  Zeus,  and  majestic  Hera,  the 
Argive  who  treads  proudly  in  golden  sandals;  and  gleaming-eyed 
Athene,  daughter  of  aegis-bearing  Zeus;  Phoebus  Apollo;  Artemis, 
arrow-queen;  and  earth-encompassing,  earth-shaking  Poseidon; 
august  Themis;  Aphrodite  who  shoots  lively  glances;  and  Hebe 
of  the  golden  crown;  and  fair  Dione;  Eos3  and  the  great  Helios,< 
and  the  resplendent  Selene;5  Latona,  and  lapetos,  and  wily 
Kronos;  Ge,6  mighty  Okeanos,  and  dark  Nux.7 — HESIOD  Theogony. 

O  Zeus,  most  glorious,  greatest,  shrouded  in  dark  clouds, 
dwelling  in  the  sky. — Iliad  ii.  412. 

The  air  is  Zeus,  Zeus  earth,  and  Zeus  the  heaven, 
Zeus  all  that  is,  and  what  transcends  them  all. 

— AESCHYLUS* 

In  God  is  no  unrighteousness 'at  all — he  is  altogether  righteous; 
and  there  is  nothing  more  like  him  than  he  is  of  us,  who  is  most 
righteous. — PLATO  Theaeteius  176.' 

*  An  epithet  of  Zeus. 

*  From  Miss  J.  E.  Harrison,  Themis  (Cambridge,  1912),  p.  7. 
3  Aurora. 

«  The  Sun.  6  The  Earth. 

*  The  Moon.  » Night. 

*  From  E.  H.  Plumtre,  The  Tragedies  of  Aeschylus  (New  York), 
P-  343- 

» From  B.  Jowett,  The  Dialogues  of  Plato  (New  York,  1887),  HI,  378. 
943 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  243 

180.  Greece  and  her  people. — As  compared  with 
•eat  India,  vast  China,  or  even  with  insular  Japan, 
Greece  is  insignificant  in  size.  It  is  but  a  petty  pen- 
insula. "Its  plains  are  deep  narrow  basins  between 
high  ridges  and  peaks."  In  place  of  rivers  it  has  only 
rushing  torrents  incapable  of  floating  a  ship.  Its  soil  is 
comparatively  sterile,  though  its  reddish  color  combined 
with  the  variety  of  hills  and  dales  lends  it  a  delightful 
charm.  This  is  increased  by  the  indentations  of  innu- 
merable bays  and  inlets,  which  add  the  incomparable  blue 
of  Aegean  water  to  the  beauty  of  the  landscapes.  "No 
spot  of  the  land  is  more  than  forty  miles  from  the  sea." 
Long  before  the  Indo-European  Greeks  came  to  this 
land  it  had  been  affected  by  the  Aegean  civilization-. 
This  civilization  has  been  disclosed  to  us  most  com- 
pletely in  Crete,  where  excavations  have  revealed  an 
outline  of  its  history  reaching  back  farther  than  3000  B.C. 
Beginning  there  in  the  Stone  Age,  this  civilization  slowly 
evolved  hi  a  way  as  original  as  that  of  Babylonia,  Egypt, 
or  China.  Scholars  call  the  race  that  produced  this 
civilization  Minoan,  from  the  myth  of  Minos  of  Crete. 
The  early  Minoan  period  of  this  civilization  was  con- 
temporary with  the  Old  Kingdom  of  Egypt;  the  Middle 
Minoan  period,  when  the  civilization  reached  its  height, 
coincided  with  the  time  of  Egypt's  Middle  Kingdom, 
2000-1800  B.C.;  while  the  Late  Minoan  period,  con- 
temporary with  the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth  Egyptian 
dynasties  (1600-1200  B.C.),  though  in  parts  a  period  of 
splendor,  was  on  the  whole  a  period  of  decline.1  The 
Cyclades  Islands,  parts  of  Laconia,  Argolis,  Attica, 

1  See  C.  H.  and  H.  Hawes,  Crete  the  Forerunner  of  Greece  (New  York, 
1909). 


244  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Boeotia,  and  Thessaly,  as  well  as  parts  of  Caria  and  the 
Troad  in  Asia,  shared  this  civilization.  Greece  was 
thus  a  highly  civilized  land  long  before  the  coming  of  the 
Greeks. 

At  some  time  before  the  end  of  the  second  millen- 
nium B.C.  the  Indo-European  Greeks  began  to  enter  the 
land  from  the  north.  They  came  in  successive  waves, 
lonians,  Achaeans,  Dorians.  They  appear  to  have 
reached  some  degree  of  civilization  before  they  separated 
from  the  Aryan  branches  of  their  race,  the  Persians  and 
Hindus,  for  they  worshiped  some  of  the  same  deities  as 
their  eastern  kinsfolk.  On  their  way  to  Greece  they 
had  advanced  farther  in  civilization,  since  they  passed 
through  the  valley  of  the  Danube  and  came  under  the 
influence  of  the  Bronze  Age  civilization  there.1  When 
they  reached  Greece,  however,  they  were  far  more 
backward  than  the  men  of  the  Mediterranean  race 
whom  they  overcame,  and  it,,  took  time  for  the  new  race 
to  absorb  and  transform  the  culture  that  they  found. 
This  period  of  absorption  and  transformation  is  reflected 
in  the  literature  from  the  Homeric  poems  to  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War.  ^f£jT 

Two  strains  of  ancestry  are  accordingly  discermEle 

Greek  religion,  that  of  the  Aegean  civilization  which 
had  established  itself  at  Mycenae,  Athens,  and  elsewhere, 
and  that  brought  by  the  Greek  tribes.  Here  and  there 
foreign  influences,  especially  Semitic,  may  have  been 
felt. 

181.  Minoan  religion  cannot  be  fully  studied  until 
the  Cretan  writing  is  deciphered.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, from  the  artistic  remains  that  the  chief  figure  in 

1  See  D.  G.  Hogarth,  Ionia  and  the  East  (Oxford,  1909),  pp.  33-41. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  245 

the  cult  of  the  island  was  a  goddess.  She  is  represented 
in  many  ways,  from  Neolithic  nude  figures  in  the  form  of 
an  excessively  fat  woman  (many  primitive  races  have 
regarded  obesity  as  an  element  of  feminine  beauty)  to 
the  goddess  with  a  flounced  skirt,  tight-fitting  waist, 
and  bare  breast,  of  the  Late  Minoan  period,  who  holds 
serpents  in  her  hands.  The  serpents  apparently  typify 
her  connection  with  the  earth.  Doves  and  lions  were 
often  associated  with  her.  She  was,  then,  goddess  of 
the  air  and  of  wild  animals.  The  bull  was  sacred  to  her. 
He  was  most  often  offered  in  sacrifice,  his  horns  adorned 
her  altars  and  temples,  and  ritual  vessels  were  made  in 
his  form.  The  goddess  was  served  by  priestesses,  and 
worshiped  at  times  in  wild  dances.1  As  in  other  countries 
that  worshiped  goddesses,  she  was  thought  to  have  a 
son.  Later  Greek  myths  traced  the  birth  of  Zeus  to  the 
Diktean  cave  in  Crete,  or  to  Mount  Ida,  where  Rhea, 
his  mother,  secretly  brought  him  forth.*  The  myth  is 
reflected  hi  the  hymn  quoted  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter.  The  son  was  thus  identified  in  later  time  with 
the  Greek  Zeus.  Cyprus  shared  in  the  Aegean  civiliza- 
tion, but  Semitic  colonies  were  also  established  there, 
and  the  Aegean  goddess  was  blended  with  the  Semitic. 
When  Minoan  civilization  was  dominant  in  Greece  in 
the  Mycenaean  age,  the  cult  of  the  goddess  was  firmly 
established  in  many  parts  of  the  land.  She  became 
Rhea,  mother  of  Zeus,  Poseidon,  and  other  deities.  She 
became  Hera,  goddess  of  Argos,  Athena  in  Attica,  and 
Artemis  in  Attica  and  Arcadia.  At  Corinth,  where 
formative  influences  may  have  come  from  Cyprus,  she 

1  See  Hawes,  op.  tit.,  pp.  135  ff. 

*  See  Strabo  x.  468,  475;  Miss  Harrison,  Themis,  p.  54,  n.  5. 


246  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

became  Aphrodite.1  The  goddess,  as  among  other 
primitive  peoples,  was  apparently  but  the  chief  of  an 
indefinite  host  of  spirits  that  were  feared.  There  is 
much  evidence  that  in  every  part  of  the  land  there  were 
many  spirits,  some  of  whom  survived  into  the  later 
religion.  Throughout  the  whole  Aegean  area  the  pillar 
was  sacred  to  this  goddess2  or  to  the  male  divinity  asso- 
ciated with  her.  The  deities  were  deities  of  fertility 
and  the  pillar  had  a  phallic  significance.  As  among  the 
Semites,  Hamites,  and  the  early  Japanese,  the  necessity 
of  replenishing  the  food  supply  and  the  tribe  led  them  to 
regard  the  power  of  reproduction  as  the  divinest  of 
qualities. 

182.  Greek  gods. — The  Greeks  were  monogamous 
and  reckoned  descent  through  the  father.  The  one 
primitive  Indo-European  god  whom  the  Greeks  brought 
with  them  was  Zeus,  called  "Zeus  pater,"  etymologically 
identical  with  "Dyaush  pitar"  of  the  Vedas.3  As  with 
the  Hindus,  he  was  the  god  of  the  overarching  sky. 
They  appear  also  to  have  brought  with  them  Apollo, 
the  god  who  guided  the  wanderer  through  the  trackless 
wild,  perhaps  originally  a  wolf-god,  but  later  identified 
with  the  sun,  who  guides  the  wanderer  on  his  way. 
Like  their  Aryan  brethren  of  India,  the  Greeks  worshiped 
Helios,  or  the  sun,  Eos,  or  the  dawn,  and  Ge,  the  earth. 
We  cannot  be  sure  that  the  worship  of  these  gods  goes 
back  to  primitive  Indo-European  days,  for  the  names 

1  So  Farnell  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  VII, 
396;  Higher  Aspects  of  the  Greek  Religion  (New  York,  1912),  pp.  8  ff. 

*  So  Gilbert  Murray,  Four  Stages  of  Greek  Religion  (New  York,  1912), 
pp.  74  ff. 

J  See  above,  p.  146. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  247 

by  which  the  Greeks  called  them  are  not  connected  with 
the  names  given  them  in  India.  To  these  the  Greeks 
added  the  worship  of  night  and  the  ocean.  The  last- 
mentioned  was  added  to  the  pantheon  after  the  Greeks' 
entrance  into  a  land  bordering  on  a  sea;  possibly  some 
of  the  others  were  developed  in  Greece. 

183.  The  pantheon  was  formed  by  the  fusion  of 
deities  from  the  Mediterranean  race  of  the  Aegean 
civilization  and  those  of  the  Greek  invaders.  As  the 
Greeks  came  southward  in  their  victorious  invasion, 
some  of  them  settled  in  Thessaly.  There  Zeus  was 
worshiped  along  with  his  female  counterpart,  Dione,1 
but  Dione  was  forgotten  by  those  who  conquered  Argos 
and  Zeus  was  married  to  Hera.  Thus  the  pre-Hellenic 
religion  blended  with  the  Hellenic.  At  Athens  there 
was  also  a  fusion,  though  here  Zeus  did  not  assume  so 
important  a  r61e.  Athena  was,  however,  made  his 
daughter,  perhaps  displacing  Eos.  Artemis  and  Aphro- 
dite were  simply  taken  over  by  the  Greeks.  Artemis 
assumed  different  characters  in  different  places.  At 
Ephesus  she  was  to  the  end  the  goddess  of  productivity. 
In  some  places  the  male  god  of  the  pre-Hellenes  was 
absorbed  by  Apollo  instead  of  by  Zeus.2  In  time  the 
pantheon  was  increased  by  the  addition  of  other  spirits, 
and  by  the  personification  of  pure  abstractions,  such  as 
Themis.  One  of  the  spirits  that  developed  later  into 
a  god  was  that  of  the  phallic  post  called  a  Herm. 
This  post  was  placed  above  the  graves  of  the  dead  as 
the  symbol  of  the  renewal  of  life.  Its  spirit  came  to  be 
regarded  as  the  means  of  communicating  with  the 
departed,  hence  in  time  this  group  of  spirits  or  Hermes 

1  See  Gilbert  Murray,  op.  cit.,  p.  75.  *  Ibid    p.  69. 


248  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

became  the  messenger  god.  Hermes  was,  however, 
represented  by  a  post  far  into  the  artistic  period.1 

Zeus,  who  displaced  or  absorbed  the  pre-Hellenic 
gods,  was  said  to  have  his  abode  on  Olympus.  There  is 
an  Olympus  in  Mysia,  another  in  Thessaly,  and  still  a 
third  hi  Elis.  Indeed,  there  are  said  to  be  more  than 
twenty  of  them.2  The  Zeus  of  a  place  was  supposed  to 
inhabit  the  mountain  that  was  nearest;  they  were  only 
gradually  merged.  The  gods  of  this  time  were  wor- 
shiped with  bloody  sacrifices  and  such  similar  cere- 
monies as  are  found  among  early  peoples. 

184.  The  early  poets. — (i)  Homer:  The  poems  that 
pass  under  the  name  of  Homer  were  not  all  written  by 
one  hand  or  at  one  time.  They  were  composed  from 
the  tenth  to  the  seventh  centuries,  the  oldest  parts  of 
the  Iliad  going  back  to  nearly  1000  B.C.  They  represent 
a  time  in  the  development  of  the  Ionian  Greeks  when 
they  had  come  to  regard  themselves  as  of  a  higher 
degree  of  civilization  than  the  surrounding  barbarians. 
In  the  epics  the  gods  are  humanized;  they  are  more 
personal  and  approachable.  They  are  pictured  as 
Hellenic  aristocrats;  they  do  not  work;  they  only 
fight  and  indulge  in  amours.  There  is  among  them  but 
one  workman,  Hephaestos,  the  metal-worker,  perhaps 
of  Aegean  rather  than  Indo-European  origin.3  He  is 
lame  and  is  the  sport  of  gods  and  poets.  Just  as  the 
aristocratic  heroes  of  Homeric  story  must  have  their 
weapons  sharpened,  but  looked  down  on  the  non- 
fighting  smith,  so  did  their  gods.  Most  of  the  gods 

1  See  Gilbert  Murray,  op.  cit.,  pp.  74  ff.;  Miss  Harrison,  Themis,  p.  365. 

» Ibid.,  pp.  64  ff. 

J  Farnell,  Higher  Aspects  of  the  Greek  Religion,  p.  14. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  249 

loved,  hated,  quarreled,  intrigued,  and  fought,  just  as 
did  their  princely  worshipers.  Nevertheless,  the  artistic 
instinct  banished  from  the  poems  much  that  was 
horrible  in  the  earlier  ceremonies  and  conceptions. 

(2)  Hesiod,  a  Boeotian  farmer,  who  wrote  about 
750  B.C.,  was  a  very  different  person  from  the  poets  who 
sang  at  the  courts  of  Asiatic  princes.  He  was  less 
gifted  as  an  artist  and  his  interests  were  those  of  the 
soil.  He  endeavored  to  arrange  the  Homeric  gods  into 
a  pantheon.  The  effort  took  the  form  of  a  poetic 
genealogy,  the  Theogony.  It  is  really  an  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  world,  a  cosmogony,  as  well  as  an  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  pantheon.  In  it  the  past  is  idealized. 
The  world  is  represented  as  growing  steadily  worse. 
The  Gold  Age  was  followed  by  the  Silver  Age,  that  by 
the  Bronze  Age.  The  present  is  the  Iron  Age,  and 
deterioration  is  still  in  progress.  What  was  noble  hi 
the  past  was  glorified  and  its  harsher  features  forgotten. 

Hesiod's  account  of  the  origin  of  the  universe  begins 
with  the  emergence  of  Chaos.  Earth  next  came  into 
being,  in  the  recesses  of  which  was  Tartarus.  Then 
came  Love.  From  Chaos  were  born  Erebos  and  Night; 
from  Night,  Aether  and  Day;  from  Earth,  the  starry 
Heaven.  From  Earth  and  Heaven  were  born  Okeanos, 
Thea,  Rhea,  Themis,  and  other  goddesses. 

In  Hesiod's  Works  and  Days  the  rules  and  taboos 
relating  to  agriculture  are  collected.  It  thus  preserves 
many  of  the  earlier  customs  and  superstitions  of  the 
people.  As  the  Iliad  mirrors  the  religion  of  the  aristo- 
cratic warrior,  the  Works  and  Days  mirrors  that  of  the 
peasant  farmer.1 

1  See  Gilbert  Murray,  op.  cit.,  p.  85. 


250  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

185.  Religion  in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.C. 
— (i)  Conditions:  These  centuries  constitute  a  period  of 
commercial  expansion.  In  the  seventh  century  Greeks 
were  welcomed  in  Egypt  by  the  kings  of  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Dynasty.  The  dynasty  established  by  Gyges  in 
Lydia  eventually  brought  under  its  sway  all  of  Asia 
Minor  west  of  the  Halys,  and  opened  the  country  to 
Greek  ideas  and  Greek  enterprise.  The  Greek  states 
themselves  began  to  establish  colonies  in  different  parts 
of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  from  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Propontis  to  Cyrene  in  Lybia.  They  also  swept 
westward  and  colonized  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily. 
This  expansion  created  a  fusion  in  religion  and  a  new 
form  of  society.  The  colonies  carried  their  home  gods 
with  them,  but  soon  grafted  on  to  the  worship  of  these 
the  local  cults  of  their  new  homes.  With  the  establish- 
ment of  the  colonies  there  came  into  being  an  extensive 
commerce,  which  soon  created  a  class  of  wealthy  mer- 
chants. Older  Greek  society  had  been  agricultural; 
the  aristocracy  were  the  owners  of  large  country  estates. 
Little  by  little  the  wealthy  city  merchant  took  the  place 
hi  popular  esteem  made  vacant  by  the  dwindling 
importance  of  the  possessors  of  unproductive  acres.  The 
peasantry  flocked  to  the  cities,  many  foreign  slaves  were 
brought  in,  and  the  older  social  fabric  was  transformed. 

(2)  Dionysos:  This  transformation  was  accompanied 
by  important  religious  changes.  One  of  the  most  strik- 
ing of  these  was  the  introduction  and  naturalization  of 
the  cult  of  the  Thracian  god  Dionysos.  In  Thrace  this 
god  was  a  god  of  general  fertility,  not  strikingly  differ- 
ent from  the  deities  of  the  old  Aegean  cult.  He  was 
worshiped  at  festivals  with  ecstatic  orgies  characteristic 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  251 

of  such  cults.  In  Greece  he  became  the  god  of  the  vine, 
but  carried  with  him  the  festivals  and  orgies  of  his  native 
land.  The  transfer  of  his  cult  to  Greece,  combined 
with  the  changing  social  conditions  of  the  period,  led 
to  the  introduction  of  a  more  personal  element  into 
religion.  Gods  had  before  been  the  deities  of  clans  or 
cities  in  whose  favor  all  members  of  the  clan  or  city 
shared.  The  potency  of  the  god  had  up  to  this  time 
been  confined  to  the  present  life.  The  underworld  was 
a  cheerless  abode,  such  as  is  pictured  in  the  Odyssey, 
Book  xi,  where  the  departed  dragged  out  a  shadowy 
existence.  The  cult  of  Dionysos  as  introduced  into 
Greece  held  out  the  hope  of  a  personal  salvation. 
Individuals  were  initiated  into  its  mysteries.  Benefits 
unknown  to  others  came  to  those  so  initiated,  and  those 
benefits  extended  to  a  happier  life  in  the  underworld. 
While  a  part  of  that  world  was  peopled  with  terrifying 
monsters,  there  were  in  other  parts  delightful  abodes  for 
the  initiated.1 

(3)  Demeter:  Under  the  spur  of  the  mysteries  of 
Dionysos,  those  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis  developed  into  a 
similar  cult.  Demeter,  though  a  Hellenic  goddess, 
probably  supplanted  one  that  had  her  beginnings  in 
Mycenaean  times.2  In  Homer  she  appears  as  an 
earth-goddess  whose  daughter,  Proserpine,  who  repre- 
sents vegetation,  was  carried  down  to  Hades.  Deme- 
ter sought  her  daughter  and  brought  her  up  again.  At 
Eleusis  she  was  the  goddess  of  a  minor  tribe,  but  in 
competition  with  the  cult  of  the  foreign  Dionysos  her 

1  See  Farnell,  The  Cults  of  the  Greek  States  (Oxford,  1896-1909), 
V,  chaps,  iv-vii. 

>Ci.ibid.,m,  31. 


252  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

mysteries  developed  apace.  People  from  outside  the 
tribe  became  initiates;  salvation  was  promised  them, 
and  the  cult  became  popular.  The  Elysian  fields  of 
this  cult  were  portrayed  in  more  refined  terms  than  those 
of  the  cult  of  Dionysos,  and  the  cult  appears  to  -have 
appealed  to  a  different  class. 

(4)  Orpheus:    Intermingled   with   these    two   cults 
were  some  that  bore  other  names.    The  most  important 
of  these  were  the  Orphic  mysteries,  which  appear  to 
have  been  in  some  way  connected  with  those  of  Dionysos, 
but  are  found  at  Eleusis  also.     Orpheus  was  the  half- 
mythical  primitive  poet  who,  by  the  power  of  his  lyre, 
had  brought  his  wife  Eurydice  back  from  the  under- 
world.   Verses  of  varying  degrees  of  excellence  were 
attributed  to  Orpheus  and  became  the  scriptures  of  the 
Orphic  sect.     Orphism  endeavored  to  satisfy  the  human 
longing  for  a  supernatural  good,  a  foretaste  of  which 
might  be  enjoyed  now.    Among  the  doctrines  prominent 
in  the  system  was  that  of  the  transmigration  of  the  soul. 
These  mystery-sects  offered  to  everyone  a  personal  sal- 
vation that  accorded  with  every  taste  and  temperament. 
The  mysteries  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis  were  stately  and 
restrained;    those  of  Dionysos  were  boisterous  and  ec- 
static.    In  the  fourth  century  the  Orphists  sent  mission- 
aries about  the  country  with  drums  and  tambourines 
after  the  manner  of  the  Salvation  Army.    They  carried 
a  donkey  load  of  fawnskins,  tame  snakes,  and  other 
paraphernalia  employed  in  the  initiations.1 

(5)  Philosophy:  The  period  which  witnessed  the  rise 
of  these  personal  religions  witnessed  also  the  rise  of 

1  The  description  of  this  given  by  Demosthenes  in  his  De  corona  259 
is  very  vivid. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  253 

philosophy.  This  began  in  Miletus,  an  Ionian  city  in 
Asia,  where,  in  the  sixth  century,  Thales,  Anaximander, 
and  Anaximenes  sought,  apart  from  religion,  to  explain 
the  external  world.  They  started  speculations  that 
lasted  on  through  the  fifth  century,  but  which  we  may 
conveniently  sum  up  here.  They  perceived  the  unity 
of  the  world,  and  each  sought  to  find  some  one  element 
that  was  original,  the  transformations  of  which  would 
account  for  the  phenomena  of  nature,  for  life  and  death. 
Thales  believed  the  original  element  to  be  water, 
Anaximenes,  air.  Pythagoras  of  Samos,  probably  in- 
fluenced by  Babylonian  mathematical  lore,  held  that 
numerical  relations  explained  all  things.  Other  philoso- 
phers viewed  the  world  from  still  different  angles. 
Heraclitus  of  Ephesus  held  that  all  nature  is  in  a  state 
of  flux;  nothing  is  stable;  the  one  permanent  thing  is 
change.  Parmenides  of  Elea  denied  this  view,  holding 
that  the  one  permanent  thing  is  being.  Empedocles 
held  that  there  were  four  primal  elements:  earth,  air, 
fire,  and  water.  Anaxagoras  of  Clazomenae  taught  that 
there  were  countless  substances,  that  these  substances 
were  in  confusion  till  mind  came  and  set  them  in  order. 
Democritus  of  Abdera  hit  upon  an  atomic  theory  of  the 
universe  that  is  strikingly  similar  to  the  atomic  theory 
of  modern  physics.  The  only  one  of  these  philosophers 
whose  theory  appears  to  border  on  religion  was  Xeno- 
phanes  of  Colophon.  He  held  that  God  is  one  and  not 
like  mortals;  all  things  are  one,  and  nothing  comes 
into  being  or  perishes.1  The  effect  of  these  philo- 
sophical speculations  was  to  undermine  the  faith  of 

1  For  a  fuller  statement  of  their  views  see  Wilmer  Cave  Wright's 
Short  History  of  Greek  Literature  (New  York,  1907),  pp.  145-51. 


254  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  more  thoughtful  in  the  old  gods  and  the  old 
religion. 

186.  The    religion    of    poets    and    philosophers. — 

Greece's  great  contribution  to  the  religious  thought  of 
the  world  was  made  through  the  great  poets  and  philoso- 
phers, Pindar,  Aeschylus,  Sophocles,  Euripides,  Aristoph- 
anes, Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  Aeschylus  was  born 
in  525  B.C.,  Pindar  in  5 2 2,  and  Aristotle  died  hi  3 22.  The 
lives  of  these  men  accordingly  extended  across  just  two 
centuries.  These  writers  were  not  religionists  in  any 
narrow  sense.  They  were  connected  with  no  priesthood 
or  religious  order.  The  literature  which  they  created 
was  altogether  of  a  secular  character,  but  it  was  pervaded 
by  conceptions  that  were  so  fundamentally  religious 
that  they  have  molded  much  of  subsequent  religious 
thinking  in  the  Mediterranean  basin,  whether  Greek, 
Jewish,  Christian,  or  Mohammedan,  and  the  religious 
thought  of  the  rest  of  the  world  in  so  far  as  it  has  been 
subjected  to  Mediterranean  influences. 

(1)  Pindar,  who  lived  for  a  time  at  Syracuse  in 
Sicily,  wrote  forty-four  odes  which  have  survived.     He 
was  devoutly  religious.    The  old  gods  appear  on  his 
pages  as  on  the  pages  of  the  Iliad,  but  they  are  more 
civilized.    When  Pindar  is  compared  with  Homer,  his 
gods  appear  as  much  more  refined  than  those  of  the  epic 
as  Homer's  were  more  refined  than  those  of  primitive 
Greece.    The  passions  of  the  gods  are  obliterated,  their 
rule  of  the  world  is  portrayed  as  righteous  and  just,  and 
there  is  a  tendency  to  exalt  Zeus  to  a  point  where  he 
embodies  the  moral  order  of  the  world. 

(2)  In   Aeschylus    this    tendency   appears   in    still 
greater  clearness.    He  says  in  a  fragment  quoted  at  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  255 

head  of  this  chapter,  the  genuineness  of  which  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt: 

The  air  is  Zeus,  Zeus  earth,  and  Zeus  the  heaven, 
Zeus  all  that  is,  and  what  transcends  them  all. 

If  this  language  is  more  than  the  momentary  utterance 
of  poetic  feeling,  it  implies  that  Zeus  is  above  and  apart 
from  other  gods,  differing  from  them,  not  only  in  degree, 
but  in  kind.  The  same  thought  is  expressed  in  various 
ways  in  his  tragedies.  It  is  not  blind  fate  that  brings 
retribution  in  the  wake  of  crime,  but  Zeus  working  his 
supreme  and  just  will. 

(3)  Sophocles  stood  nearer  than  Aeschylus  to  the 
popular  point  of  view.     In  his  plays  no  one  god  over- 
shadows the  rest  of  the  pantheon.     He  is  more  inter- 
ested in  portraying  the  possible  benefits  of  suffering, 
and  depicts  in  such  instances  as  Oedipus  and  Antigone 
how  character  is  purified  in  the  crucible  of  life. 

(4)  Euripides,  480-406  B.C.,  manifested  a  very  differ- 
ent attitude  in  his  plays.    Aeschylus  and  Sophocles  were 
aristocrats  who  were  interested  in  maintaining  the  old 
religion  and  the  old  order;  Euripides  was  a  man  of  the 
people.    He  was  a  critic  of  the  old  religion — not  the 
kind  of  critic  that  a  consistent  thinker  would  be,  but  a 
critic  of  artistic  moods  and  poetic  feeling.     For  fifty 
years  he  lived  in  Athens.     He  is  said  to  have  written 
ninety-two  plays,  only  eighteen  or  nineteen  of  which 
have  survived.     In  these  he  assumes  toward  religion 
and  the  gods  the  various  attitudes  of  a  man  who  is,  on 
the  whole,  skeptical  and  yet  possesses  an  artistic  feeling 
that  is  akin  to  religious  emotion.    The  myths  which 
attributed  immorality  to  the  gods  repelled  him,  while 


256  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  conventions  of  his  art  compelled  him  to  employ 
them.  He  took  no  pains  to  conceal  the  revolting 
aspects  of  these  myths,  though  he  took  care  so  to  portray 
them  that  they  should  prove  unattractive  to  the  crowd. 
Faithlessness,  vengefulness,  lust,  and  brutality  were 
called  by  their  right  names  when  gods  exhibited  them. 
At  tunes  his  characters  express  doubts  as  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  gods,  though  this  usually  occurs  under 
circumstances  such  that  the  dramatic  situation  demands 
it.  At  times  it  is  hinted  that  Zeus  may  be  mere  law. 
These  plays  undoubtedly  did  much  to  undermine  the 
popular  faith  in  the  gods.  Just  at  the  end  of  his  life 
Euripides  spent  two  years  in  Macedonia,  where  he  came 
in  contact  with  the  genuine  Dionysian  orgies.  Those 
he  had  witnessed  at  Athens  were  but  faint  imitations. 
Under  the  spell  of  these  he  wrote  his  Bacchae.  Some 
have  found  evidence  in  this  that  he  who  had  been  a 
skeptic  all  his  life  at  last  "found  religion"  and  became 
a  devotee  of  this  cult.  It  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  right 
to  see  in  the  play  more  than  a  complete  artistic  abandon 
to  his  theme.  But  even  if  his  faith  were  awakened  by 
the  Dionysiac  cult,  he  abated  nothing  of  his  lofty  con- 
ceptions, for  in  this  very  play  he  exclaims: 

It  fits  not  that  in  wrath  gods  be  as  men.1 

(5)  Aristophanes,  who  died  in  385  B.C.,  was  the 
antithesis  of  Euripides,  whom  he  disliked  personally. 
He  was  an  aristocrat,  devoted  to  the  old  order  of  things. 
Aristophanes  was  a  comic  poet,  whose  aim  was  to  catch 
the  popular  ear  and  raise  a  laugh.  One  of  the  surest 
ways  to  do  this  is  to  denounce  the  tendencies  of  one's 

1  Bacchae  1.  1348. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  257 

own  time.  After  allowance  is  made  for  this,  there 
nevertheless  remains  in  Aristophanes  a  genuine  dislike 
of  the  tendencies  of  the  age  both  in  philosophy  and  in 
religion.  His  influence  was,  therefore,  regressive. 

(6)  Socrates  (469-399  B.C.)  was  a  great  critic  of  his 
age.  His  aim  was  to  show  men  the  shallowness  of  much 
of  their  pretended  knowledge,  to  bring  them  to  self- 
realization,  to  lead  them  to  a  philosophy  of  life  that  had 
been  tested  by  experience.  His  method  of  doing  this 
by  drawing  out  the  pupil  with  questions  still  bears  the 
name  Socratic.  One  should,  Socrates  thought,  know 
himself,  know  whither  he  is  aiming,  and  know  the  means 
that  will  bring  him  to  his  goal.  Socrates  believed  he 
had  a  good  spirit,  a  daimon  he  called  it,  that  guided  him. 
It  told  him  when  he  was  on  the  right  track;  it  warned 
him  when  he  was  going  wrong.2  Xenophon  calls  this 
daimon  a  god,  but  probably  it  was  thus  that  Socrates 
personified  conscience. 

Skeptic  as  Socrates  was  in  practical  matters,  he 
nevertheless  was  a  devout  believer  in  the  gods.  Xeno- 
phon, his  pupil,  who  knew  him  well,  bears  abundant 
testimony  to  this  in  the  Memorabilia.  Socrates  devoutly 
offered  sacrifices  to  the  gods  according  to  his  means;  he 
faithfully  followed  every  intimation  that  he  believed  to 
be  of  the  divine  will;  he  "undervalued  everything 
human,  in  comparison  with  counsel  from  the  gods."3 
Xenophon  reports  a  conversation  that  he  heard  between 
Socrates  and  Aristodemus  in  which  Socrates  argued  for 
the  reality  of  the  gods,  though  they  are  unseen,  from 
the  reality  of  the  mind  in  the  body,  which,  though 

1  See  the  Memorabilia  i.  1.4. 
'Ibid,  i.3-4. 


258  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

unseen,  directs  it.1  He  also  employed  an  argument 
from  design,  based  upon  the  wise  adaptation  of  means 
to  ends  in  the  structure,  of  the  bodies  of  animals  and 
men.  Reverent  in  religion,  Socrates  expended  his 
dialectic,  not  in  an  attempt  to  explain  the  universe  and 
nature,  but  in  the  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  best  way  of 
living.  His  philosophy  was  pragmatic  rather  than 
speculative.  He  believed  that  the  gods  knew  all  things, 
what  was  meditated  in  silence  as  well  as  what  was  done,2 
that  the  divine  nature  was  perfection,  and  that  to  be 
nearest  to  the  divine  nature  was  to  be  nearest  to  per- 
fection.3 He  lived  a  simple  life,  always  helpful  to  the 
common  people,  and,  when  unjustly  condemned  to 
death,  died  bravely  and  cheerfully.  Whether  death 
was  a  dreamless  sleep  or  an  opportunity  for  converse 
with  the  heroes  and  sages  of  the  past,  he  declared  he  did 
not  know,  but  hi  neither  case  could  it  be  an  evil. 

(7)  Plato,  born  in  427  B.C.,  became  a  pupil  of  Socrates 
at  the  age  of  twenty,  and  enjoyed  his  instruction  for 
eight  years  before  Socrates  was  put  to  death.  Plato 
lived  until  327  B.C.  His  activity  as  an  author  extended 
over  fifty  years,  and  as  a  teacher  over  more  than  forty. 
Although  he  had  studied  the  works  of  all  preceding 
philosophers,  his  system  was  in  reality  a  development 
of  the  basic  principles  of  that  of  Socrates.  "Socrates 
had  explained  that  only  the  knowledge  of  concepts 
guarantees  a  true  knowledge.  Plato  goes  further,  and 
maintains  that  it  is  only  by  reflection  in  concepts,  in  the 
forms  of  things,  or  'ideas'  that  true  and  original  Being 
can  be  attained."  "From  this  point  of  view  the  reality 
of  ideas  becomes  the  necessary  condition  of  the  possi- 

1  Memorabilia  i.  4.  'Ibid.  i.  i.  19.  3Ibid.i.  6.  10. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  259 

bility  of  scientific  thought.  The  same  result  follows 
from  the  contemplation  of  Being  as  such."1  All  things 
outward  are  subject  to  ceaseless  change;  only  ideas  are 
permanent.  Plato  was  thus  led  to  hold  that  ideas  only 
are  eternal.  Sensuous  existences  have  originated  from 
attempts,  only  partially  successful,  to  express  an  eternal 
idea.  This  lack  of  success  is  due  to  the  nature  of  the 
second  principle,  matter,  which  enters  into  the  structure 
of  all  sensuous  things.  This  second  principle  Plato 
regarded  as  "unlimited,  ever-changing,  non-existent,  and 
unknowable."2  The  soul,  in  Plato's  view,  stands  mid- 
way between  ideas  and  the  corporeal  world  and  unites 
both.  "It  is  incorporeal  and  ever  the  same,  like  ideas, 
but  spread  abroad  throughout  the  world,  and  moving  it 
by  its  own  original  motion."3  Plato  "recognizes  the 
true  cause  of  the  world  in  reason,  in  ideas,  and  the  deity 
....  but  the  distinction  of  the  creator  from  the  ideas 
(or  more  exactly  from  the  highest  of  the  ideas)"  is  not 
very  clear. 

In  Plato's  conception  "deity  coincides  with  the  idea 
of  good,  the  belief  hi  providence  with  the  conviction 
that  the  world  is  the  work  of  reason  and  the  copy  of  the 
idea,  while  divine  worship  is  one  with  virtue  and  knowl- 
edge."4 He  was  a  philosophical  monotheist,  and  makes 
it  clear  that  he  regards  the  gods  of  mythology  as  creatures 
of  the  imagination. 

In  Plato's  view  the  soul  belongs  to  "  the  world  above 
the  senses,  and  in  that  only  can  find  its  true  and  lasting 

1  E.  Zeller,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Greek  Philosophy  (New  York, 
1890),  p.  140. 

*  Zeller,  op.  cit.,  p.  146. 

» Ibid.,  p.  149.  4  Ibid.,  p.  161. 


260  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

existence;  the  possession  of  good  or  happiness  which 
forms  the  final  goal  of  human  effort  can  only  be  obtained 
by  elevation  into  that  higher  world.  The  body,  on  the 
other  hand,  and  sensual  life,  is  the  grave  and  prison  of 
the  soul."1  The  mission  of  man  is  therefore  to  escape 
from  this  lower  life  into  the  higher  world.  This  is 
accomplished  "by  the  habit  of  the  soul  gathering  and 
collecting  herself  into  herself,  out  of  all  the  courses  of 
the  body;  the  dwelling  in  her  own  place  alone,  as  in 
another  life,  so  also  in  this,  as  far  as  she  can;  the  release 
of  the  soul  from  the  chains  of  the  body."2  Plato  did 
not,  however,  recommend  the  avoidance  of  the  sensuous 
world  as  some  oriental  religions  did;  rather,  sensuous 
phenomena  were  to  be  employed  as  a  means  of  attaining 
to  an  intuition  of  the  idea. 

Plato's  conception  of  the  soul  led  him  to  adopt  the 
Orphic  doctrine  of  transmigration.  As  the  idea  is 
anterior  to  a  soul,  and  a  soul  to  a  body,  belief  in  the  pre- 
existence  of  souls  naturally  followed.  His  conception 
of  the  soul  gave  a  new  meaning  to  life  after  death;  a 
real  doctrine  of  immortality  was  now  possible.  Plato  also 
adopted  the  Orphic  conception  of  hell,  the  terrors  of  the 
punishments  in  which  were  greatly  intensified  by  his 
doctrine  of  immortality. 

(8)  Aristotle  (384-322  B.C.)  was  a  pupil  of  Plato,  but 
when  he  attained  to  intellectual  independence  he  differed 
from  his  master  at  many  points.  He  found  reality,  not 
in  the  realm  of  ideas,  but  in  things.  He  recognized  that 
forms  change,  that  individuals  come  into  being  and 
perish,  but  he  noted  that  the  genera  or  species  remain. 
These  correspond  to  the  forms  which  make  up  our 

1  Zeller,  op.  cit.,  p.  155.  »  Plato,  Phaedo  67  ff. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  261 

concepts.  Individuals  are  to  be  referred  to  these  con- 
cepts and  are  derived  from  them.  Far  more  than  Plato 
he  confined  his  philosophy  to  natural  science.  The 
heavenly  bodies  and  their  movements  led  Aristotle  to 
his  conception  of  the  world.  The  earth,  he  held,  is  in 
the  center  of  a  number  of  concentric  spheres  which 
revolve  around  it.  These  are  moved  by  a  Being  who  is 
apart  and  above  them — a  Being  who  is  not  material — 
who  is  Mind.  The  material  world  he  distinguished  from 
this  Being  even  more  sharply  than  Plato.  Man  is  a 
creature  intermediate  between  the  material  world  and  the 
eternal  Mind,  or  God.  Like  several  of  his  predecessors, 
he  rejected  the  old  mythology.  He  endeavored  to  put 
ethics  on  a  scientific  basis,  and  found  the  chief  end  of 
man  in  well-being.  This  well-being  he  found  in  the 
proper  exercise  of  the  specifically  human  faculties  and 
the  attainment  of  those  virtues  which  constitute  the 
distinctive  human  excellencies.  He  has  nothing  to  say 
of  the  life  after  death. 

These  great  Greek  philosophers  have  profoundly 
influenced  all  subsequent  philosophy  and  religion  in  the 
western  world. 

187.  Later  philosophical  development  took  first  the 
form  of  a  reaction  against  the  dualism  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle.  Passing  by  the  Peripatetic  school,  of  the 
doctrines  of  which  little  is  known,  this  reaction  found 
expression  in  the  Stoic  philosophy. 

(i)  The  Stoic  school  was  founded  by  Zeno  of  Citium 
in  Cyprus,  who  died  about  270  B.C.  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two.  The  Stoics  elaborated  the  idea  set  forth  by  Hera- 
clitus  of  Ephesus,  that  the  world  is  penetrated  by  the 
divine  logos  or  reason.  In  Stoic  hands  this  became  a 


262  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God.  God  was  not  a  being 
outside  the  framework  of  the  universe  and  apart  from 
it,  but  One  who  interpenetrates  its  every  part.  The  aim 
of  the  Stoics  was  purely  ethical;  their  speculations 
accordingly  revolved  around  the  problems  of  life.  Their 
great  contention  was  that  man  should  live  according  to 
nature.  Nature  was  interfused  with  God;  to  live  in 
accordance  with  nature  was  to  live  in  accord  with  God. 
As  God  is  the  single  causal  force  of  the  universe,  one 
cause  runs  through  all  things  and  determines  all.  This 
view  constituted  the  Stoic  doctrine  of  fate.  It  was  not 
a  mechanical  fate,  but  a  fate  directed  by  intelligence  for 
wisest  ends.  The  Stoics  accounted  for  the  presence  of 
evil  in  a  world  pervaded  by  God  on  the  theory  that  good 
cannot  be  perceived  or  even  exist  apart  from  its  opposite. 
The  Stoics  held  the  soul  to  have  a  corporeal  nature  like 
the  body,  but  its  material  is  a  part  of  the  divine  fire 
which  descended  into  the  bodies  of  men  when  they  first 
arose  out  of  the  ether.  It  is  a  particle  of  God.  Man  is 
moved  by  brute  impulses,  but  it  is  the  business  of  the 
soul  to  pass  judgment  upon  these  and  to  bring  them  into 
subjection  to  reason.  Stoic  virtue  is  a  battle  with 
passions.  They  are  irrational  and  must  be  eradicated. 
It  is  the  duty  of  men  to  attain  apathy,  or  freedom  from 
passions.  The  virtuous  man's  happiness  consists  in 
"freedom  from  disturbance,  repose  of  spirit,  and  inward 
independence." 

The  attitude  of  the  Stoics  toward  the  gods  of 
mythology  and  the  popular  religion  was  one  of  tolerance. 
They  were  unwilling  to  deprive  ordinary  men  of  the 
ethical  support  afforded  by  religious  beliefs,  and  it  was 
possible  to  see  in  the  gods  different  manifestations  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  GREECE  263 

the  one  philosophic  God.  By  means  of  allegorical 
interpretation  the  myths  were  rationalized,  philosophi- 
cally interpreted,  and  the  system  justified. 

(2)  Epicurus  was  a  contemporary  of  Zeno.  Epi- 
curean philosophy  is  at  nearly  every  point  the  antithesis 
of  the  Stoic.  Epicurus  adopted  the  atomic  theory  of 
Democritus  as  to  the  composition  of  physical  nature; 
in  ethics  he  made  the  individual  the  aim  of  all  action. 
In  his  view  the  only  absolute  good  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
individual.  He  found  pleasure,  however,  not  in  things 
low  or  base,  but  in  virtue.  It  alone  gives  happiness. 
From  this  point  of  view  a  theory  of  society  was  worked 
out.  The  individual  sought  happiness  in  the  society 
of  others.  Epicurus  recognized  the  existence  of  gods, 
but  their  happiness  required  that  they  should  not  be 
burdened  with  the  care  of  men.  He  also  sought  to 
relieve  men  from  the  oppression  of  fear  of  the  gods. 

188.  General  results. — The  philosophies  at  which 
we  have  glanced  were  the  most  important  ones  which 
occupied  men's  thoughts  up  to  the  time  when  the  life  of 
Greece  was  merged  into  that  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
These  philosophies  attracted  only  the  educated  classes. 
Side  by  side  with  them  the  older  beliefs  survived.  The 
common  people  had  faith  in  the  old  gods,  believed  the 
old  myths,  offered  the  old  sacrifices,  and  perpetuated 
the  old  mysteries.  The  philosophic  systems  were  too 
tolerant  to  disturb  the  old  religion ;  they  were  too  coldly 
philosophical  to  be  among  the  masses  real  substitutes 
for  it.  There  was  never  such  a  sifting  of  the  old  from 
the  new  as  the  historical  misfortunes  of  the  Hebrews 
wrought  for  that  nation,  so  that  the  primitive  and  the 
lofty  existed  side  by  side  till  the  end.  In  this  respect 


264  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  religious  history  of  Greece  finds  a  parallel  in  that 
of  India. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  180:    cf.  J.  H.  Breasted,   Ancient  Times  (New  York, 

1916),  pp.  221-405. 
On  sec.  181:     C.  H.  and  H.  Hawes,  Crete  the  Forerunner  of  Greece 

(New  York,  1909),  pp.  135-143. 
On  sees.  182,  183:    Hesiod  Theogony  (in  translation). 
On  sec.  184:     Gilbert   Murray,  Four  Stages    of  Greek   Religion 

(New  York,  1912),  chap.  ii. 
On  sec.  185:     Famell,  "Greek  Religion,"  §  II,  o-n,  in  Hastings' 

Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  VI. 
On  sec.  186 :    Farnell,  ibid.,  §  II,  1 2— §  III,  6 ;  and  E.  Zeller,  Greek 

Philosophy  (New  York,  1890),  pp.  101-221. 
On  sec.  187:    Zeller,  op.  cit.,  pp.  228-73. 

CLASS  B 
G.  F.  Moore:  History  of  Religions,  I,  chaps,  xvii-xx. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME 

Since  there  is  nothing  better  than  reason  and  since  this  exists 
both  hi  man  and  in  God,  man's  first  communion  with  God  is  one 
of  reason. — CICERO  De  kgibus  i.  7.  22  S. 

189.  The  Roman  people  belonged  to  that  part  of 
the  Indo-European  race  which  entered  Italy  and  is,  for 
that  reason,  often  called  Italic.  At  the  beginning  Rome 
was  only  an  insignificant  village  community  of  Latium, 
the  land  of  the  Latins.  The  Italic  stock  were  not  the 
first  inhabitants  of  Italy;  they  were  preceded  by  the 
Mediterranean  race  whose  presence  in  the  Mediterranean 
basin  is  of  unknown  antiquity.  The  Italic  stock  was 
apparently  scattered  through  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
Central  Italy  by  1000  B.C.  or  earlier.  These  people  lived 
in  huts  and  protected  themselves  as  best  they  could. 
The  beginnings  of  Rome  consisted  of  collections  of  such 
huts.  The  site  was  selected  because  its  seven  hills  could 
each  be  surrounded  by  palisades  and  be  defended. 
Archaeological  discoveries  in  the  Forum  seem  to  show 
that  the  site  was  occupied  as  early  as  1000  B.C.  About 
800  B.C.  that  part  of  Italy  now  called  Tuscany  was 
invaded  by  a  people  from  Asia,  whom  we  call  Etruscans. 
They  were  apparently  kindred  to  the  people  of  Lydia, 
for  their  art  was  similar  to  that  of  Lydia  and  they 
employed  the  same  alphabet  as  the  Lydians.  The  new- 
comers mingled  with  the  Italic  stock  and  formed  the 
Etruscans  of  history.  They  were  more  civilized  than 
the  Italic  population  to  the  south  of  them. 

265 


266  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  city-state  of  Rome  came  into  existence  about 
750  B.C.  During  its  early  history  it  was  one  of  the 
members  of  the  Latin  League,  a  number  of  kindred 
cities  that  were  banded  together.  Representatives  of 
these  met  yearly  at  Alba  Longa.  About  600  B.C.  the 
Etruscans  surged  southward  and  conquered  a  good  por- 
tion of  Italy,  submerging  Rome  also.  An  Etruscan  line 
of  kings  occupied  the  Roman  throne  for  about  a  century. 
Under  these  kings  citizenship  was  made  less  exclusive 
and  a  strong  military  organization  was  developed. 
After  the  expulsion  of  this  foreign  line,  Rome  was  ruled 
by  an  aristocracy,  which,  through  the  pressure  of  the 
populace  from  beneath  and  the  vicissitudes  of  various 
wars,  was  transformed  gradually  into  a  republic.  Little 
by  little  Southern  Italy  was  conquered.  It  had  been 
colonized  by  Greeks.  Their  sovereignty  Rome  swept 
away,  and  the  struggle  with  Carthage  for  control  of 
the  western  Mediterranean  began.  The  story  of  the 
Carthaginian  wars,  of  Rome's  extension  of  power,  the 
establishment  of  her  colonies  throughout  the  Mediter- 
ranean region,  the  transformation  of  the  republic  into  the 
empire,  31-27  B.C.,  and  the  history  of  that  great  empire 
to  its  fall  in  476  A.D.,  are  too  well  known  to  be  recounted 
here.  Throughout  their  history  the  Romans  were  noted 
for  their  practical  efficiency  rather  than  for  philosophical 
or  speculative  gifts. 

190.  The  earliest  religion  of  the  Romans  was  of  a 
simple,  animistic  nature.  They  were  an  agricultural 
folk  to  whom  it  was  of  prime  importance  to  be  on  good 
terms  with  the  spirits  of  the  soil.  Before  their  settle- 
ment on  the  land  the  clan,  or  gens,  was  the  unit,  but 
with  the  settlement  in  permanent  abodes  the  family 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  267 

emerged.  To  maintain  the  family  was,  after  that,  the 
main  desire;  it  was  for  this  that  the  fields  were  tilled. 
The  spirits  that  presided  over  the  procreative  power  of 
the  family,  over  its  dwelling,  and  over  its  nourishment 
were  thus  added  to  the  spirits  of  the  land  as  the  objects 
of  the  earliest  worship.  Thus  each  individual  man  was 
believed  to  have  a  Genius  and  each  individual  woman  a 
Juno,  to  whom  each  did  homage.  The  Genius  was  the 
personified  power  of  procreation;  the  Juno,  of  con- 
ception. The  worship  of  these  powers  had  for  its 
motive  the  perpetuation  of  the  family.  Among  many 
peoples  the  door  or  threshold  has  been  regarded  with 
reverence;  its  importance  to  the  household  as  a  means 
of  entrance,  exit,  and  defense  is  very  great.  Janus  was 
the  spirit  of  the  door.  The  life  of  every  household 
depends  upon  the  hearth  and  centers  about  it;  Vesta 
was  the  spirit  of  the  hearth.  The  penus  was  the  store- 
house of  the  family;  the  di  penates  were  the  spirits 
who  guarded  the  stores.  Similarly  the  spirits  which 
presided  over  agriculture  were  venerated.  There  were 
the  Lares,  originally  the  spirits  of  the  family  farm;1 
Faunus,  who  gave  increase  to  the  cattle;  Pales  who 
made  the  flocks  breed;  Saturn  who  presided  over  the 
sowing  of  seed;  Robigo,  who  prevented  mildew;  Census 
the  protector  of  harvests,  and  many  others.  The 
departed  members  of  a  family  or  clan  became  spirits 
and  were  known  as  Di  Manes  who  dwelt  in  the  under- 
world. Each  spirit  was  at  once  the  object  over  which  it 
presided,  and  more  than  the  object.  Thus  Vesta  was 
the  hearth,  but  much  more  than  the  hearth. 

1  See  Fowler,  The  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People  (London, 
IQII),  pp.  77  ff. 


268  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

These  spirits  were  apparently  worshiped  in  festivals, 
though  but  little  knowledge  of  the  feasts  has  survived. 
One  such  was  the  Laralia,  celebrated  soon  after  the 
winter  solstice,  on  a  day  set  by  the  head  of  the  family 
or  the  heads  of  families.  All  the  family,  including 
slaves,  took  part  in  it;  it  was  free  and  joyous  in  char- 
acter. Each  family  had  its  own  altar  on  its  own  land. 
Some  of  the  festivals  were  accompanied  with  singing  and 
revelry.  Marriage  was  a  religious  festival,  for  which  a 
cake  made  of  far  was  offered  to  Jupiter,  the  spirit  of  the 
sky.  It  is  thought  that  the  bride  and  groom  partook  of 
the  cake  as  a  sacrament. 

Apart  from  the  festivals  the  common  daily  life  was 
attended  by  religious  ceremonies.  On  every  family 
table  there  was  a  salt-cellar  and  a  salt  cake  baked  by  the 
daughters  of  the  family.  After  the  first  course  of  the 
midday  meal,  which  was  the  principal  course,  in  a 
solemn  silence  a  part  of  the  salt  cake  was  thrown  on  the 
fire  from  a  sacrificial  plate.  This  was  a  sacrifice  to 
Vesta.  Other  spirits  were  doubtless  propitiated  in 
appropriate  ways,  so  that  religion  pervaded  life. 

191.  Religion  of  the  city-state. — In  course  of  time 
the  exigencies  of  self-defense  caused  the  agricultural 
communities  to  merge  themselves  into  the  city-state  of 
Rome.  Knowledge  of  the  earliest  religion  of  this  state 
is  obtained  by  studying  the  so-called  calendar  of  Numa.1 
This  calendar  indicated  the  days  on  which  it  was 
"religiously  permissible  to  transact  civil  business"  and 
the  days  when  to  do  so  would  be  sacrilegious.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  basis  of  this  calendar  ante- 
dates the  coming  of  the  Etruscans.  The  religious 

1  See  Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  chap.  v. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  269 

ceremonies  prescribed  for  each  month  show  what  the 
occupations  in  that  month  were.  These  ceremonies 
were  designed  to  secure  the  blessing  of  the  gods  upon 
the  work  of  the  month.  April  was  the  month  of  agri- 
cultural beginnings.  At  the  Fordicidia  on  the  fifteenth 
a  pregnant  cow  with  her  unborn  calf  was  sacrificed  to 
the  Earth  to  insure  fertility.  On  the  nineteenth 
occurred  the  Cerealia,  or  festival  of  Ceres,  the  goddess 
of  fruits.  On  the  twenty-first,  the  Parilia,  or  festival  of 
Pales,  the  tutelary  deity  of  shepherds  and  cattle.  On 
the  twenty- third,  the  first  Vinalia,  or  wine  feast;  and 
on  the  twenty-fifth,  the  Robigalia,  or  festival  of  the 
spirit  that  protects  from  mildew.  The  calendars  of 
certain  other  months,  when  agricultural  interests  would 
naturally  occupy  the  people,  are  in  like  manner  agri- 
cultural. Thus  there  was  a  series  of  festivals  in  August 
that  had  to  do  with  the  harvest.  Martial  interests  also 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  state,  for  in  March  there 
were  festivals  for  the  consecration  of  implements  of  war 
before  the  beginning  of  the  fighting  season,  and  hi 
October  festivals  for  purification  from  the  taint  of 
bloodshed.1  The  agricultural  feasts  sought  to  maintain 
the  life  of  the  state;  the  martial  feasts,  to  protect  it. 

In  this  period,  as  in  the  former,  life  was  hedged  about 
with  numerous  taboos,  and  religion  was  supplemented 
by  magical  practices. 

192.  Etruscan  influence  profoundly  modified  Roman 
religion.  Tradition  ascribed  the  occupation  of  Rome 
by  the  Etruscans  to  the  sixth  century  before  Christ, 
but  their  expulsion  from  the  city  may  have  occurred 
considerably  later  than  the  traditional  date,  509  B.C. 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  96  f. 


270  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Until  the  Etruscan  period  Rome  had  no  wall;  such 
fortifications  as  there  were  had  been  erected  on  the 
hilltops.  The  Etruscans  gave  the  city  both  a  military 
and  a  religious  wall.  The  latter  consisted  of  a  furrow 
plowed  in  a  circle  outside  the  walls  of  the  city.  The 
plow  was  drawn  by  a  bull  and  a  cow  yoked  together  and 
the  furrow  was  turned  toward  the  center  of  the  circle. 
Inside  this  circle,  called  the  pomerium,  no  gods  except 
those  of  the  state  could  be  brought. 

During  the  Etruscan  period  the  Capitoline  hill  was 
crowned  with  a  temple  in  -which  Jupiter,  Juno,  and 
Minerva  were  worshiped.  These  deities  were  essentially 
Italic  rather  than  Etruscan.  Jupiter  had  had  a  long 
history  in  Latium  before  he  became  supreme  in  Rome. 
Although  he  is  the  old  Indo-European  sky-god,1  and 
was  brought  into  Italy  by  the  Italic  immigrants  from 
their  primitive  cradle-land,  he  did  not  hold  the  first 
place  in  the  religious  life  of  the  primitive  Romans. 
Janus  took  precedence  of  him.  Juno  and  Minerva 
were  also  Italic  deities,2  each  of  whom  had  her  separate 
cella  in  the  temple  on  the  Capitoline.  The  Etruscans 
worshiped  them  because  they  found  them  in  the  land 
into  which  they  had  come,  and  were  compelled  to 
propitiate  them.  As  the  Roman  state  developed,  the 
figure  of  Jupiter  far  overtopped  that  of  the  goddesses 
and  of  all  other  deities.  Success  in  war  led  the  Etruscans 
at  times  to  worship  him  as  Jupiter  Victor  and  to  deify 
Victoria  (Victory). 

Another  goddess  that  came  to  Rome  in  the  Etruscan 
period  was  Diana.  Originally  she  was  a  wood-goddess 

1  See  above,  p.  146. 

a  Cf.  Fowler.  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  p.  238. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  271 

of  Nemi  who  in  time  became  the  great  goddess  of  Aricia, 
which  was  not  far  distant.  Aricia  afterward  became 
powerful  in  the  Latin  League  and  Diana  became  the 
goddess  of  the  League.  The  Etruscans  accordingly 
erected  a  temple  to  her  on  the  Aventine  Hill  and  Diana 
came  to  Rome. 

From  the  earliest  times  the  Romans  had  practiced 
augury,  but  from  the  Etruscans  they  learned  to  draw 
certain  imaginary  lines  in  the  heavens  and  to  observe 
the  flight  of  birds  in  relation  to  these.  The  earthly 
counterpart  of  the  quadrangle  thus  created  in  the 
heavens  was  called  a  templum  and  became  the  ritual 
inclosure  of  a  temple.  The  Etruscans  also  secured 
oracles  by  consulting  the  livers  of  victims.  This  they 
had  learned,  probably  in  some  indirect  way,  from  the 
Babylonians.  This  method  of  divination  the  Romans 
learned  also  from  the  Etruscans,  though  it  never  was 
completely  naturalized  among  them.  To  the  end  they 
regarded  it  as  a  foreign  art. 

193.  The  early  republic,  or  the  period  between  500 
and  200  B.C.,  witnessed  great  changes  in  the  Roman 
state  and  in  its  religion.  At  the  beginning  Rome  was 
but  one  member  of  a  league  of  city-states;  at  its  close 
she  was  mistress  of  Central  and  Southern  Italy,  of 
Corsica,  Sardinia,  and  Sicily,  as  well  as  of  Spain.  The 
struggles  incident  to  this  expansion  and  the  commerce 
that  followed  in  its  train  brought  many  new  gods  to 
Rome.  The  most  important  of  these  were  of  Greek 
origin.  Greeks  had  colonized  Southern  Italy,  but  in  the 
war  with  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  early  in  the  third 
century,  Rome  became  mistress  of  the  Greek  territories. 
Even  before  this,  trade  had  begun  to  bring  Greek  gods 


272  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

to  Rome,  though  the  earliest  of  them  were  not  recognized 
as  Greek.  Merchants  brought  the  worship  of  Hercules 
to  Tibur  (Tivoli),  and  from  there  his  worship  spread  to 
Rome  as  that  of  a  native  Italian  god.  Castor  and 
Pollux,  gods  of  the  cavalrymen  of  Greeks  in  Italy,  had 
established  themselves  at  Tusculum  in  Latium.  After- 
ward, thinking  them  native  deities,  the  Romans  wel- 
comed them  as  such  to  their  city.  During  this  period 
the  Sibylline  oracles  were  introduced  among  the  Romans. 
As  these  were  consulted  in  times  of  difficulty,  suggestions 
for  appeal  to  other  Greek  gods  were  naturally  received. 
Apollo  was  introduced  from  Cumae  as  a  physician  in  the 
sixth  century  B.C.  and  given  a  place  in  the  Campus 
Martius.  Others  came,  but  were  kept  outside  the 
pomerium;  such  were  Demeter,  Dionysos,  and  Kore. 
They  were  given  Latin  names:  Ceres,  Liber,  Libera. 
As  knowledge  of  Greek  deities  increased,  old  Latin 
divinities  of  a  shadowy  nature  took  on  the  character  of 
the  corresponding  Greek  gods.  Thus  Mercury  was 
understood  to  be  Hermes,  and  Neptune,  Poseidon.  On 
account  of  a  pestilence  at  Rome  in  292  B.C.,  the  worship 
of  Aesculapius  was  introduced  from  Epidaurus.  In 
249  B.C.  the  worship  of  Pluto  and  Persephone  was  also 
established  in  the  Campus  Martius.  They  were  called 
Dis  and  Proserpina. 

Along  with  new  deities  came  a  knowledge  of  Greek 
mythology,  which  the  Romans  assimilated  with  great 
eagerness.  They  rapidly  adapted  their  own  deities  to 
the  conceptions  of  the  new  myths.  Many  of  the  Greek 
legends  were  taken  over  bodily,  but  all  of  Roman  life 
was  measured  against  a  Greek  background,  and  new 
stories  concerning  it  were  invented  according  to  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  273 

/ 

Greek  pattern.  It  was  thus  that  the  story  of  the 
founding  of  Rome  by  Romulus  came  into  existence. 

The  influx  of  foreign  cults  was  accompanied  by  the 
influx  of  foreign  immigrants.  This  fact,  together  with 
the  experiences  through  which  the  Romans  were  passing, 
led  to  a  great  increase  of  the  emotional  element  in 
religion.  This  new  emotional  element  in  its  eagerness 
for  satisfaction  prompted  the  people  to  lay  hold  upon 
whatever  promised  to  afford  new  experiences.  Thus  it 
happened  that  from  this  time  to  the  end  of  the  republic 
the  Roman  religion  was  characterized  by  what  was 
called  superstitio. 

194.  The  later  republic. — At  the  close  of  the  Second 
Punic  War  Rome  found  herself  a  world-power.  She 
was  mistress  of  the  western  Mediterranean,  and  through 
her  championship  of  the  Greeks  and  her  defeat  of 
Antiochus  III  on  Asiatic  soil  in  190  B.C.,  she  assumed 
the  position  of  arbiter  of  eastern  Mediterranean  affairs, 
which  ultimately  subjugated  to  her  the  countries  of  that 
region.  It  is  often  said  that  political  expansion  called 
into  being  an  extensive  trade,  and  that  Rome  was 
gradually  transformed  from  an  agricultural  to  a  com- 
mercial city.  In  course  of  time  the  character  of  its 
population  was  greatly  changed.  According  to  this 
view  the  change  was  effected  by  the  influx  of  small 
farmers  from  the  country  and  of  foreigners  from  across 
the  sea.  A  world-wide  commerce  is  supposed  to  have 
created  a  capitalistic  class.  Before  corporations  were 
known  there  was  little  opportunity  for  such  a  class  to 
invest  surplus  funds  except  in  land.  Many  of  the 
farmers  found  themselves  in  straits,  for  the  invasion  of 
Hannibal  had  destroyed  the  equipment  of  their  farms, 


274  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  they  had  little  choice  but  to  sell.  In  a  land  where 
all  labor  was  performed  by  slaves,  those  who  had  lost 
their  property  could  not  work  as  laborers.  They  gravi- 
tated to  Rome  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed. 
This  view  has  recently  been  called  in  question,  and  it 
seems  probable  that,  while  there  is  no  doubt  about  the 
change  in  the  character  of  the  population,  it  was  brought 
about  almost  entirely  by  the  importing  of  foreign  slaves 
to  Rome.  These  were  set  free  and  gradually  formed 
about  90  per  cent  of  the  population.1  In  any  event  the 
dignity  and  sobriety  of  the  populace  of  the  older  time 
was  more  and  more  replaced  by  the  emotional  and 
explosive  qualities  of  oriental  peoples.  This  composite 
populace  possessed  the  ballot  and  each  successful 
politician  was  compelled  to  gain  its  good  will.  In  time, 
through  the  increase  of  luxury  and  lax  standards,  the 
family  began  to  decay.  Divorce  became  common,  and 
many  who  were  married  avoided  the  responsibility  of 
parenthood.  These  conditions  produced  profound  reli- 
gious changes. 

The  decay  of  the  family  led  to  the  decay  of  the  old 
family  religion.  The  Genii  and  Manes  of  ancestors 
could  not  be  worshiped  when  there  were  no  descendants 
to  perform  that  office.  With  the  decay  of  the  family 
an  element  of  stability  vanished  from  the  state.  The 
older  priesthoods  of  Jupiter,  Mars,  and  Quirinus  were 
retained,  as  well  as  the  rex  sacrorum  or  the  official  who 
had  taken  over  the  priestly  duties  that  in  earlier  cen- 
turies had  been  performed  by  the  king,  but  all  these 
were  carefully  excluded  from  political  influence.  When 

'See  T.  Frank,  "Race  Mixture  in  the  Roman  Empire,"  American 
Historical  Review,  XXI,  689-708. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  275 

these  officials  were  prohibited  from  touching  the  affairs 
of  real  life,  popular  interest  in  their  functions  waned. 
These  cults  accordingly  became  in  some  degree  cere- 
monial survivals  from  the  past. 

Along  with  the  decay  of  the  old,  new  forms  of 
religion  were  introduced.  The  cult  of  Cybele,  the 
Magna  Mater  of  Phrygia,  was  brought  in,  in  204  B.C., 
to  aid  Rome  in  repelling  invaders.  Later  the  Egyptian 
Isis  and  other  oriental  goddesses  were  welcomed.  The 
cult  of  the  Thracian  Dionysos  was  also  introduced  from 
Greece.  The  god  was  called  Bacchus,  and  his  orgiastic 
festivals  were  known  as  Bacchanalia.  It  was  not  at 
first  recognized  that  this  god  was  identical  with  Liber. 
The  emotional  character  of  the  Bacchanalia  accorded 
well  with  the  growing  emotionalism  of  the  tune.  Cruder 
forms  of  Greek  philosophy,  such  as  that  of  the  neo- 
Pythagoreans  with  its  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of 
the  soul,  were  also  taught.  All  this  led  to  the  production 
of  very  diverse  states  of  mind  in  different  people.  Some 
regarded  all  religion  as  superstition;  others,  having  lost 
faith  in  the  old  national  forms,  eagerly  welcomed  those 
of  the  foreign  goddesses,  hoping  that  they  might  find 
some  source  of  supernatural  help.  Meanwhile  the 
rulers,  feeling  that  for  the  common  people  the  forms  of 
religion  were  necessary,  rigidly  supported  the  old 
national  ceremonies. 

The  two  systems  of  philosophy  that  were  so  powerful 
hi  Greece  at  this  period  found  their  way  into  Italy. 
Epicureanism  became  popular  hi  Italy  only  in  the  last 
century  B.C.  In  the  Epicurean  system  the  gods  were 
really  superfluous;  the  universe  was  mechanical. 
Nevertheless,  many  an  Epicurean  continued  to  worship 


276  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  order  that  some  subtle  influence  from  the  idea  of  each 
god  might  enter  his  soul.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  how  far 
the  practical  Romans  were  capable  of  being  influenced 
by  such  ideas.  One  of  them,  Lucretius,  seems,  however, 
while  dissolving  the  old  religious  thought  in  the  acid 
of  his  philosophy,  to  have  attained  a  true  mystic  feeling 
for  the  Power  unseen  which  manifests  itself  in  nature.1 

Stoicism,  hi  some  respects  the  most  religious  of  the 
Greek  philosophies,  was  introduced  into  Rome  by 
Scipio  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.C.  Two 
great  thoughts  dominate  Stoicism.  The  first  is  that 
the  whole  universe  hi  all  its  forms  shows  unmistakably 
the  working  of  reason  and  mind;  the  second  is  that  man 
alone  of  all  creatures  shares  with  God  the  full  possession 
of  reason.  Cicero,  though  an  Eclectic,  leaned  to  the 
Stoic  school.  In  his  De  natura  deorum  he  sets  forth  a 
view  of  God  that  is  kindred  to  that  of  the  eighteenth- 
century  Deists.  His  conception  of  the  relation  of  man 
to  God  is  lofty,  and  his  conception  of  human  duty  noble, 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  had  sufficient  definite- 
ness  to  grip  the  conscience  of  a  Roman  in  his  daily 
dealings  with  others. 

In  the  face  of  the  disintegration  of  the  old  religion 
which  all  these  causes  produced,  Varro,  the  most  learned 
of  the  Romans,2  endeavored  by  learning  to  revive  faith 
in  the  old  religion.  He  interpreted  its  forms  as  parables 
of  the  Stoic  philosophy,  but  the  older  faith  was  dead, 
and  mere  antiquarian  erudition  was  powerless  to  bring 
it  back  to  life. 

1  See  J.  B.  Carter,  The  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome  (Boston,  191 1), 
pp. 60  ff. 

2  He  died  in  28  B.C.  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  277 

195.  State  religion  of  the  early  empire. — One  of  the 

marvels  of  history  is  the  religious  revival  wrought  by 
the  emperor  Augustus.1  Called  to  fight  for  his  existence 
at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  soon  crushed  his  enemies,  and 
proceeded  to  rule  not  so  much  by  force  as  by  tact. 
Augustus  was  gifted  with  insight  to  understand  that  no 
motive  is  so  powerful  in  human  affairs  as  the  religious 
motive.  He  accordingly  set  himself  to  revive  the  cults 
that  had  been  permitted  to  fall  into  decay.  The  temple 
of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitoline  and  that  of  Apollo  on  the 
Palatine  rose  again  in  renewed  splendor,  as  did  many 
others.  He  asserts,  indeed,  that  he  rebuilt  eighty-two 
temples  in  and  about  the  city  of  Rome.  The  priest- 
hoods were  reorganized,  purged  of  politicians,  and 
taught  their  religious  functions.  The  religious  festivals 
were  revived  and  were  made  by  their  splendor  to  appeal 
once  more  to  the  populace.  The  worship  of  the  Lares 
at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  which  Julius  had  sup- 
pressed because  it  had  afforded  opportunity  for  political 
intrigue,  was  revived,  and  with  the  Lares  the  Genius  of 
the  emperor  was  associated  as  an  object  of  veneration. 
To  a  degree  faith  in  the  older  religion  came  back,  and 
loyalty  to  the  emperor  was  fostered. 

Augustus  also  gave  to  the  whole  empire  a  religion. 
Each  of  the  many  nations  under  his  scepter  acknowl- 
edged the  sway  of  a  different  god.  In  order  that  there 
might  be  a  common  religious  bond  he  organized  emperor- 
worship.  In  the  East  it  was  no  new  thing  to  worship  a 
king.  Many  kings  had  claimed,  even  while  living,  to 
be  gods.  In  the  West,  however,  this  deification  of  the 

1  See  Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  Lecture 
XIX;  Carter,  The  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome,  pp.  66  ff. 


278  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

living  man  was  more  difficult.  As  the  imperial  religion 
demanded  only  the  worship  of  the  Genius  of  the  living 
emperor,  it  was  adapted  to  both  East  and  West,  though 
in  the  East  the  distinction  between  the  Genius  and 
the  emperor  was  usually  meaningless.  Temples  for  the 
worship  of  the  emperors  grew  up  in  the  capitals  of  all 
the  provinces,  and  in  time  in  the  smaller  cities.  To  the 
temples  organized  priesthoods  were  attached.  In  time 
these  grew  into  a  hierarchy.  The  priests  in  metropolitan 
towns  assumed  authority  over  those  hi  outlying  districts. 

At  first  sight  the  worship  of  Jupiter  appears  to  be 
coextensive  with  the  worship  of  the  emperors,  but  this 
appearance  is  deceptive,  for,  while  temples  to  Jupiter 
were  found  everywhere,  they  were  temples  to  the  local 
god  under  the  Latin  name. 

196.  Philosophies  under  the  Empire. — The  Stoic 
philosophy  continued  to  influence  a  small  but  select 
circle.  As  the  social  religion  of  the  family  and  the  city- 
state  had  disappeared,  and  the  empire  was  a  vast 
agglomeration  of  different  peoples,  an  individualism  hi 
religion  arose.  Men  began  to  think  of  individual  sin 
and  of  individual  salvation.  In  Stoic  circles,  influenced 
by  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  sin  was 
ignorance;  knowledge  was  salvation.  The  holy  man 
was  the  wise  man.  It  was  assumed  that  he  who  knows 
the  truth  will  do  it.  This  philosophic  gospel  was,  how- 
ever, for  the  few. 

Of  far  wider  influence  were  the  bands  of  wandering 
Cynic  philosophers  who  on  the  street  corners  or  on  temple 
steps  preached  to  the  people  the  salvation  of  common 
sense  and  the  return  to  nature.  In  the  Cynic  view 
knowledge  is  courage,  justice,  and  wisdom.  The  con- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  279 

tent  of  virtue  is  one's  will.  According  to  this  teaching 
each  one  has  the  means  to  salvation  in  his  own  power. 
The  satirist,  Lucian,  portrays  these  Cynics  as  preaching 
with  earnestness  and  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  even 
through  his  satire  one  detects  a  degree  of  respect. 
They  sought  to  teach  men  the  way  of  life,  and  exerted 
a  wider  influence  probably  on  the  masses  than  the 
aristocratic  Seneca,  or  the  imperial  moralist,  Marcus 
Aurelius. 

Another  philosophy  of  considerable  influence  in 
certain  parts  of  the  empire  was  the  neo-Platonic.  Its 
precursor,  if  not  its  founder,  was  Plutarch,  who  was  born 
in  Greece  about  50  A.D.  In  philosophy  he  was  eclectic, 
adopting  some  ideas  from  Plato,  some  from  the  Pytha- 
goreans, some  from  the  Stoics,  etc.  He  regarded  the 
gods  of  the  nations  as  different  names  for  the  one  divine 
nature.  He  held  to  a  doctrine  of  demons  which 
accounted  for  the  evils  of  the  world  and  even  for  the 
disgusting  usages  of  some  religions.  He  regarded  the 
gods  as  "our  chief est  friends";  he  coupled  with  faith  in 
them  the  great  "hypotheses  of  immortality";  he  kept 
faith  in  an  ultimate  good.  He  pointed  the  way  which 
many,  with  deepening  emotion,  followed.  We  call  the 
way  neo-Platonism.  It  was  a  "strange  medley  of 
thought  and  mystery,  piety,  magic,  and  absurdity." 
It  had  little  to  do  with  Plato. 

197.  Mystery  Religions. — In  the  quest  for  personal 
salvation,  which  was  inaugurated  by  the  emergence 
of  individualism,  oriental  mystery-religions  ultimately 
outstripped  philosophy  in  popularity.  These  religions 
appealed  to  the  imagination  on  account  of  their  great 
antiquity,  their  elaborate  myths,  their  mystic  rites, 


280  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

their  promises  of  regeneration  and  of  salvation.  Those 
that  exerted  a  wide  influence  were  three  in  number:  the 
cult  of  Cybele  of  Phrygia,  of  Isis  of  Egypt,  and  of  Mithra 
of  Persia. 

(i)  The  cult  of  Cybele  had  been  introduced  into 
Rome  in  204  B.C.  It  was  the  cult  of  the  Asiatic  Phry- 
gians. The  goddess  personified  the  fertility  of  the  earth. 
She  was  supposed  to  have  a  son,  Attis,  who,  like  similar 
gods  in  matriarchal  cults,  was  subordinate  to  her.  In 
Phrygia  it  had  been  customary  from  time  immemorial  to 
mourn  the  death  of  the  god  during  the  winter,  when 
vegetation  languished.  In  the  springtime,  when  it  was 
reviving,  the  Phrygians  celebrated  festivals  on  wooded 
hilltops  to  the  goddess  and  her  son.  These  festivals 
were  often  orgies  of  wild  excitement.  Great  emotion 
was  experienced  because  the  god  now  lived  again. 
Sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  two  deities;  men  cut  them- 
selves that  their  own  blood  might  mingle  with  that  of 
the  sacrifice;  they  even  sacrificed  their  virility,  and 
became  priests  of  the  goddess.  Such  was  the  religion 
that  unwittingly  the  sedate  Romans  of  the  republic 
admitted  to  their  midst.  As  soon  as  its  character  was 
known,  it  was  hedged  about  by  laws  which  prevented 
its  spread  among  the  people.  It  did  not  become  popular 
until  the  tune  of  the  empire.  Claudius  is  said  to  have 
bestowed  imperial  sanction  upon  the  Phrygian  cult,  and 
thereafter  it  spread  rapidly.  It  seems  from  the  begin- 
ning to  have  sought  to  bring  the  worshiper  into  harmony 
with  deity  by  ecstatic  and  mystic  ceremonies.  One  of 
these  was  the  taurobolium.  A  pit  was  dug,  the  initiate 
was  placed  hi  it,  the  opening  was  covered  with  planks, 
and  a  bull  was  slaughtered  above.  Through  the  crevices 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  281 

of  the  planks  the  blood  dripped  down  upon  the  novice. 
He  received  it  on  his  face,  in  his  ears,  his  eyes,  his 
nostrils;  he  even  let  it  touch  his  palate  and  swallowed  it. 
Of  course  it  flowed  over  his  body.  When  he  emerged  he 
was  congratulated  as  one  who  had  put  away  his  old 
nature  and  been  united  in  life  to  the  goddess.  Revolt- 
ing as  the  ceremony  was,  many  sought  salvation  hi  this 
way,  and  the  cult  was  introduced  into  most  of  the 
provinces  of  the  empire.1  In  time,  however,  the  bar- 
baric character  of  the  ceremonies  and  the  revolting 
nature  of  the  myths  connected  with  the  cult — features 
that  even  allegory  could  not  render  attractive — caused 
it  to  lose  its  hold  upon  the  people. 

(2)  Another  mystery-religion  that  became  popular 
was  that  of  Isis.  This  goddess  was  the  Egyptian  mother 
of  fertility,  of  immemorial  antiquity,  who,  with  her  son 
or  husband  Osiris,  was  worshiped  throughout  Egypt. 
Her  worship  in  early  Egypt  had  been  attended  with 
ceremonies  which  had  set  forth  in  a  crass  way  the  idea 
of  the  propagation  of  life,  but  these  features  had  been 
greatly  toned  down  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies.  In  the 
religious  establishment  brought  about  by  Ptolemy  Lagi, 
Osir-Api  (corrupted  to  Serapis)  had  taken  the  place  of 
Osiris,  and  a  ritual  in  the  Greek  language  had  been 
established.  While  the  Egyptians  quickly  recognized 
in  Serapis  their  old  god  Osiris,  the  older  features  of  the 
cult  which  were  repugnant  to  Greek  sensibilities  were 
eliminated. 

During  the  Ptolemaic  period  the  cult  of  Isis  spread 
through   the   Mediterranean   world.     Temples   to   her 

1  See  F.  Cumont,  The  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism 
(Chicago,  1911),  pp.  46-72. 


282  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

were  built  in  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  the  Aegean 
islands,  and  even  in  Italy.  Though  the  grosser  features 
of  early  Egyptian  days  had  been  suppressed,  Isis  was 
still  regarded  as  a  patron  of  illicit  love.  These  features 
of  her  worship  were  repugnant  to  the  sturdy  Romans, 
and  of  the  devotees  of  such  cults  the  followers  of  Isis 
only  suffered  persecution.  In  48  B.C.  the  chapels  of 
Isis  were  demolished,  and  in  28  B.C.  it  was  forbidden  to 
erect  her  altars  within  the  pomerium.  Aversion  to  her 
worship  appears  to  have  waned  under  the  empire,  for 
Caligula  about  38  A.D.  erected  a  great  temple  to  Isis 
on  the  Campus  Martius,  of  which  Domitian  later  made 
one  of  Rome's  splendid  monuments.  About  215  A.D. 
Caracalla  built  the  goddess  a  temple  still  more  mag- 
nificent. The  third  century  marks  the  climax  of  the 
power  of  Isis  in  the  empire.  The  Serapeum  at  Alex- 
andria was  destroyed  by  the  patriarch  Theophilus  in  391, 
yet  the  processions  of  Isis  were  witnessed  on  the  streets 
of  Rome  as  late  as  394  A.D. 

It  is  difficult  at  this  distance  to  understand  the  exact 
features  of  the  Egyptian  cult  which  made  it  so  popular. 
Egyptian  theology,  or  rather  mythology,  was  always  in 
a  fluid  state,  and  it  appears  that  during  the  centuries  of 
her  worship  by  the  Romans  Isis  lost  her  early  character 
and  became  the  chaste  protector  of  virginity.  It  seems 
probable,  however,  that  the  great  attraction  of  the  cult 
lay  in  its  conception  of  the  life  to  come.  In  the  older 
Egyptian  religion  Osiris  had  become  the  judge  of  the 
dead;  each  person,  after  death,  must  pass  an  examination 
before  Osiris  before  entering  upon  his  career  in  the  other 
world.  Serapis  had  taken  the  place  of  Osiris,  and  in  a 
period  when  the  other  life  was  very  real,  men  sought 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  283 

eternal  salvation  in  a  cult  that  especially  prepared 
them  for  the  great  assize  of  the  judgment  day.  Like  all 
early  religions,  this  cult  had  its  ceremonial  purifications 
and  ablutions.  These  in  time  came  to  have  a  deep 
significance.  They  were  regarded  as  having  power  to 
wash  away  the  stains  of  sin  and  to  purify  character. 
Thus  the  cult  of  Isis  came  to  be  popular  among  those 
who  were  earnestly  seeking  personal  salvation.1 

(3)  Perhaps  even  more  popular  than  these  was  the 
cult  of  Mithra.  Mithra  was  an  old  Aryan  sun-god.a 
His  cult  was  a  survival  of  those  heathen  elements  of 
Persia  which  Zoroaster  had  been  unable  to  suppress. 
As  it  developed  on  Persian  soil,  it  took  on  the  dualistic 
tendencies  of  later  Zoroastrianism — the  belief  in  Ahri- 
man,  and  in  angels  and  demons,  together  with  the  idea 
of  perpetual  strife  between  the  good  and  the  evil.  By 
the  time  the  cult  reached  the  West  it  had  been  deeply 
penetrated  by  Babylonian  influences.  It  had  absorbed 
the  Babylonian  sidereal  conceptions,  as  well  as  its 
systems  of  conjuration.  Mithraism  also  brought  from 
Persia  the  general  features  of  Zoroastrian  eschatology. 
Its  devotees  believed  in  a  very  real  heaven  and  hell.  It 
developed  a  rich  liturgy,  with  initiations,  sacraments, 
and  love-feasts.3  It  recognized  in  an  emphatic  way  the 
evil  of  the  world  with  which  men  were  impressed  in  the 
early  centuries  of  our  era,  and  offered  a  plausible  expla- 
nation of  it;  it  confronted  the  individual  with  the 

1  See  Cumont,  The  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  pp.  73- 
102;  T.  G.  Tucker,  Life  in  the  Roman  World  of  Nero  and  St.  Paul 
(New  York,  1910),  pp.  372  ff. 

»See  above,  p.  121. 

J  Cf .  Cumont,  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  pp.  135-61; 
The  Mysteries  of  Mithra  (Chicago,  1903),  passim. 


284  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

alternative  of  a  happy  heaven  or  an  endless  hell ;  and  it 
offered  mystic  means  of  grace  by  which  heaven  could 
be  secured.  Moreover,  the  cult  was  very  adaptable. 
In  Babylonia,  Mithra  was  Shamash  under  another 
name;  in  Rome  he  was  Jupiter;  in  Syria,  Baal.  Wher- 
ever it  spread  it  adapted  itself  to  the  local  surroundings 
and  absorbed  the  important  features  of  the  local  cult. 

The  introduction  of  Mithraism  into  Rome  dates 
from  her  conquests  of  Asia  Minor  and  Mesopotamia. 
Though  there  is  said  to  have  been  a  congregation  of 
Mithra's  votaries  in  Rome  in  the  time  of  Pompey  hi 
67  B.C.,  the  real  diffusion  of  his  mysteries  began  with  the 
Flavians  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  century  A.D. 
Mithraism  became  more  important  under  the  Antonines 
in  the  second  century,  and  still  more  so  under  the  Severi 
in  the  third.  At  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century 
Mithra  seemed  on  the  point  of  eclipsing  all  rivals,  for 
in  307  A.D.  Diocletian,  Galerius,  and  Licinius  met  at 
Carnuntum  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  and  dedicated 
a  sanctuary  to  Mithra,  "the  protector  of  their  empire."1 
Indeed,  when  Constantine  accepted  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
as  told  in  the  well-known  legend,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he 
was  able  to  distinguish  between  the  cross  of  the  Galilean 
and  the  wheel-like  sun  disk,  the  symbol  of  Mithra. 

Of  all  the  mystery-religions  the  cult  of  Mithra  was 
the  purest  and  most  austere.  It  contained  no  impure 
ceremonies  and  nothing  ethically  repulsive.  It  exceeded 
the  others  in  moral  elevation,  and  was  well  calculated  to 
gratify  the  imagination,  appeal  to  the  heart,  and  stimu- 
late the  moral  instincts.  Soon  after  the  famous  meeting 
of  Diocletian,  Galerius,  and  Licinius,  Constantine  gave 

1  See  Cumont,  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  p.  150. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ROME  285 

to  Christianity  that  imperial  patronage  which  helped 
to  make  Christianity  dominant.  After  that  the  history 
of  the  religion  of  the  Roman  Empire  is  merged  in  the 
history  of  Christianity. 

198.  Summary. — The  religion  of  Rome  began  in  a 
vague  worship  of  spirits — as  vague  as  that  of  the 
Japanese.  This  worship  had  for  its  center  the  family 
and  the  perpetuation  of  the  family.  The  struggle  for 
existence  merged  this  family  religion  hi  course  of  tune 
into  the  religion  of  the  state.  Both  were  restrained, 
ethical  according  to  the  standards  of  the  time,  and 
devoted  to  practical  ends.  As  the  city-state  expanded 
into  the  empire  the  social  and  commercial  changes 
created  conditions  which  undermined  the  old  religions, 
and  foreign  influences  and  manners  found  a  ready 
welcome.  Decay  of  faith,  and  a  growth  of  superstition 
and  skepticism  followed.  Augustus  called  into  exist- 
ence the  state  religion,  to  which  many  hi  the  empire 
responded,  but  the  rise  of  individualism  with  the  thirst 
for  personal  salvation  opened  the  door  to  the  mystery- 
religions  of  the  East,  and  also  to  Christianity,  which 
ultimately  triumphed  over  them  all. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.   189:    cf.  J.  H.  Breasted,  Ancient  Times  (New  York, 

1916),  pp.  484-713- 
On  sees.  190-195:    W.  Warde  Fowler,  The  Religious  Experience 

of  the  Roman  People  (London,  1911),  Lectures  IV-XLX. 
On  sec.  197:     F.    Cumont,    The  Oriental   Religions   in   Roman 

Paganism  (Chicago,  1911). 

CLASS  B 

G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions  (New  York,  1913),  chaps,  xxi,  jnrii. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS 

He  was  their  god, 

The  withered  Cromm  with  many  mists  .... 
To  him  without  glory 

They  would  kill  their  piteous  wretched  offspring, 
With  much  wailing  and  peril, 
To  pour  their  blood  around  Cromm  Cruaich. 
Milk  and  corn 

They  would  ask  of  him  speedily 
In  return  for  a  third  of  their  healthy  issue. 
Great  was  the  horror  and  fear  of  him. 
To  him  the  noble  Gaels  would  prostrate  themselves. 
—  LEABHAR  LAIGNECH,  Book  of  Leinster  (London, 

1880), 


High  blows  Heimdallr,  the  horn  is  aloft; 
Odin  communes  with  Mimir's  head; 
Trembles  Yggdrasill's  towering  ash; 
The  old  tree  wails  when  Ettin  is  loosed. 

—From  the  Prose  Edda.a 

Wroth  stood  Roskva's  Brother, 
And  Magan's  Sire  wrought  bravely: 
With  terror  Thor's  staunch  heart-stone 
Trembled  not,  nor  Thjalfi's. 

—  Song  of  Eilifr.3 

1  Quoted  by  J.  A.  MacCulloch,  The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Celts 
(Edinburgh,  1911),  p.  79. 

»  A.  G.  Brodeur,  The  Prose  Edda  by  Snorri  Sturluson  (New  York, 
1916),  p.  80. 

»  Ibid.,  p.  108. 

286 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      287 

Bravely  Thor  fought  for  Asgard 
And  the  followers  of  Odin. 

— Song  of  Gamli.1 

Many  a  fearless  swordsman 
Received  the  Tears  of  Freyja 
The  more  the  morn  when  foemen 
We  murdered;  we  were  present. 

— Song  of  Skuli  Thorsteinsson.2 

Then  up  and  down  the  river  he  sought  some  ferryman; 

He  heard  a  splash  of  water;  to  hearken  he  began. 

'Twas  made  by  elfin  women  within  a  fountain  fair; 

Who  fain  to  cool  then-  bodies  were  bathing  themselves  there. 

They  floated  like  to  sea-birds  before  him  on  the  flood, 
It  seemed  to  him  their  foresight  must  needs  be  sure  and  good. 

— The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs.3 

199.  The  Celts,  a  name  of  uncertain  derivation,  is 
applied  to  the  Welsh,  Irish,  the  Highlanders  of  Scot- 
land, the  people  of  Brittany,  and  those  who  speak,  or 
have  spoken,  languages  kindred  to  theirs.  "The  earliest 
Celtic  kingdom  was  in  the  region  between  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  and  the  Danube,  where 
probably  in  Neolithic  times  the  formation  of  their 
Celtic  speech  as  a  distinctive  language  began.  Here 
they  first  became  known  to  the  Greeks,  probably  as  a 
semi-mythical  people,  the  Hyperboraeans — the  folk 
dwelling  beyond  the  Ripoean  Mountains,  whence 
Boreas  blew — with  whom  Hecateus  in  the  fourth  century 
identifies  them The  name  generally  applied 

1  A.  G.  Brodeur,  The  Prose  Edda  by  Snorri  Sturluson,  p.  109. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  148. 

»A.  Horton  and  E.  Bell,  The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs  (London,  1898), 
11-  1533,  1536. 


288  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

by  the  Romans  to  the  Celts  was  'Galli,'  a  term  finally 
confined  by  them  to  the  people  of  Gaul.  Successive 
bands  of  Celts  went  forth  from  this  comparatively 
restricted  territory,  until  the  Celtic  'empire'  for  some 
centuries  before  300  B.C.  included  the  British  Isles,  parts 
of  the  Iberian  Peninsula,  Gaul,  North  Italy,  Belgium, 
Holland,  and  a  great  part  of  Germany  and  Austria. 
When  the  Graman  tribes  revolted,  Celtic  bands  appeared 
in  Asia  Minor,  and  remained  there  as  the  Galatian 
Celts."1  Later,  by  the  coming  of  the  Teutons  and  other 
races,  the  Celts  were  gradually  confined  to  Brittany, 
Wales,  Ireland,  and  Northern  Scotland. 

200.  Celtic  animism. — The  Celts  down  to  the  coming 
of  Christianity  attributed  to  everything  a  spirit  or  a 
"personality,"  as  personality  was  then  understood. 
Many  of  these  "personalities,"  such  as  the  earth,  sun, 
moon,  sea,  wind,  rivers,  wells,  and  certain  trees  and 
plants,  were  worshiped.  Thus  inscriptions  from  the 
Pyrenees  tell  of  the  Fagus  Deus,  or  divine  beech.2 
An  old  Irish  glossary  gives  daur,  "oak,"  as  an  early  Irish 
name  for  god.3  It  has  been  argued  that  the  holy  object 
within  the  central  triliths  at  Stonehenge  was  an  oak.4 
"The  Irish  bile  was  a  sacred  tree  of  great  age,  growing 

over  a  holy  well  or  fort Another  Irish  bile  was 

a  yew  described  in  a  poem  as  'a  firm  strong  god.' 
The  other  bile  were  ash  trees."5  The  Druids  held  nothing 
more  sacred  than  the  mistletoe.  When  it  was  found 
growing  on  a  tree  it  was  thought  to  show  that  that  tree 
had  been  selected  as  the  object  of  especial  divine  favor. 

1  From  J.  A.  MacCulloch,  op.  tit.,  pp.  18  f . 

2  Ibid.,  p.  198.  4  Ibid.,  p.  200. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  199.  s  Ibid.,  p.  201. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS     289 

It  was  cut  by  a  Druid,  clad  in  white,  with  a  golden 
sickle;  it  was  caught  in  a  white  cloth,  and  two  white 
bulls  were  sacrificed  beneath  the  tree.1 

Evidence  of  the  sacredness  of  waters — lakes,  rivers, 
and  wells — is  also  abundant.  In  inscriptions  the  names 
of  rivers  are  preceded  by  a  divine  epithet,  such  as  dia 
or  augusta.  St.  Columba  is  said  to  have  routed  the 
spirits  of  a  Scottish  fountain  which  was  worshiped  as  a 
god.  A  yearly  festival,  three  days  in  length,  was  held 
at  Lake  Gevaudan.  Animals  were  sacrificed,  and  gar- 
ments, food,  and  wax  were  thrown  into  the  waters.2 
St.  Patrick  found  the  pagans  of  his  day  worshiping  a 
well  called  slan,  "health-giving,"  and  offering  sacrifices 
to  it.  Slan  occurs  in  the  names  of  many  wells,  a 
goodly  number  of  which  are  venerated  to  this  day. 
Sometimes  the  well  itself  is  still  venerated,  though  it 
is  more  often  its  saint.  As  in  other  parts  of  the  world, 
offerings  were  thrown  into  sacred  wells.3 

Out  of  these  natural  objects  of  worship  many  deities 
were  formed.  The  names  of  river  or  fountain  deities 
are  not  infrequent.  Such  are  Acionna,  Aventia,  Bor- 
mana,  Brixia,  Carpundia,  Clutoida,  Divona,  Sirona, 
Ura — well-nymphs;  and  Icauna  (the  Yonna),  Matrona, 
and  Sequana  (the  Seine) — river-goddesses.  The  moon 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  important  object  in  nature 
to  the  early  Celts.  Festivals  of  growth  began,  not  at 
sunrise,  but  in  the  evening  when  the  moon  arose.  The 
Celtic  moon-goddess  was  sometimes  equated  with 
Diana.4  If  we  may  believe  the  Christian  missionaries, 
the  ancient  Celts  did  not  always  distinguish  between  the 

1  Ibid.,  p.  205.  J  Ibid.,  p.  194. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  181.  «  Ibid.,  pp.  177  f. 


290  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

natural  object  and  the  god.  Among  them  a  sun-hero 
held  a  prominent  place.1  There  are  indications  that 
originally  certain  annuals  were  sacred  to  the  Celts,  and 
that  totemism  existed  among  them.  In  historic  times 
this  had  declined,  and  animals  were  regarded  mainly 
as  symbols  or  attributes  of  divinity.* 

201.  Celtic  gods. — Julius  Caesar  in  his  Commentaries 
on  the  Gallic  War  gives  a  list  of  the  gods  of  the  conti- 
nental Celts,  equating  them  after  Roman  fashion  with 
Roman  deities.  He  declares  that  their  principal  divinity 
was  Mercury,  whom  they  held  to  be  the  inventor  of  the 
arts  and  the  guide  on  roads  and  journeys,  and  to  have 
especial  power  in  the  matter  of  acquiring  money  and 
in  commercial  transactions.  His  images  were  especially 
numerous.3  A  Gallic  god  identified  with  Mercury  was 
Ogmios.  Lucian,  a  Greek  who  traveled  and  wrote  in 
the  second  century  of  our  era,  identified  him  with 
Heracles.4  Another  Celtic  god  identified  with  Mercury 
was  Moccus,  a  swine-god.  A  similar  god  was  worshiped 
in  England,  for  an  inscription  from  Yorkshire  is  dedicated 
to  "the  god  who  invented  roads  and  paths."  Another 
local  god  of  roads,  also  identified  with  Mercury,  was 
called  Cimiacinus.5  Caesar's  "Mercury"  was  in  reality 
several  local  gods  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  culture. 

Caesar  mentions  next  Apollo,  who  wards  off  diseases. 
As  in  the  case  of  Mercury,  many  local  gods  were  identi- 
fied with  Apollo.  In  an  inscription  found  in  Cumber- 

1  Cf .  John  Rhys,  The  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  Illustrated  by 
Celtic  Heathendom  (London,  1898),  Lecture  V. 

*  Cf.  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  chap.  xiv. 

»  vi.  14.  4  Lucian  Herakles  i  f . 

5  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  24  ff . 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      291 

land  Apollo  is  called  Maponus,  a  name  connected  with 
the  old  Welsh  mapon,  a  boy  or  child.  A  boy  Apollo  was 
worshiped  by  Celts  as  far  from  England  as  Transyl- 
vania.1 Another  god,  or  group  of  gods,  identified  with 
Apollo  was  called  Grannos.  They  were  gods  of  thermal 
springs.  In  eastern  Gaul  and  the  Rhine  provinces  a 
goddess,  Dirona  or  Sirona,  was  associated  with  Grannos. 
She  too  was  a  water-spirit  or  an  earth-goddess.  Belenos 
was  another  Celtic  Apollo.  The  name  is  derived  from 
a  root  that  means  "shining  one."  Belenos  was  accord- 
ingly a  sun-god.2  Caesar  next  mentions  the  war-god 
Mars.  Some  sixty  names  or  titles  of  Celtic  war-gods 
are  known.  They  are  probably  local  tribal  deities. 
Some  of  the  names  show  that  the  gods  were  thought  of 
as  valiant  warriors:  thus  we  have  Caturix,  "battle- 
king,"  Albiorix,  "world-king."  In  Britain  a  common 
name  was  Belatu-Cadros,  meaning  perhaps  "comely  in 
slaughter."3 

The  next  god  mentioned  by  Caesar  is  Jupiter.  At 
least  three  different  deities  have  been  identified  with 
him — a  god  with  a  hammer,  Taranis,  a  crouching  god 
called  Cernunnos,  and  a  god  called  Esus  or  Silvanus. 
These  gods  are  often  represented  with  hammers — to 
early  men  a  symbol  of  power — and  were  thought  to 
be  thunderers.4 

Caesar  lastly  mentions  Minerva,  who  taught  the 
beginnings  of  the  arts.  In  Ireland  such  a  goddess  was 
called  Brigit.  What  the  name  of  the  corresponding 
Gallic  goddess  was  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  Celts 
had  many  goddesses,  some  worshiped  as  individuals. 

1  Rhys,  op.  cit.,  pp.  21  f.  * Ibid.,  pp.  27  f. 

*  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  24  f .      « Ibid.,  pp.  29-39. 


292  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

generally  as  the  consorts  of  male  deities,  others — and 
these  were  much  more  numerous — worshiped  as  group- 
goddesses.1  In  connection  with  their  worship  phallic 
symbols  appear  at  times  to  have  been  employed.2 
There  were  numerous  local  divinities  and  tutelary 
deities.  Those  that  have  been  mentioned,  while  the 
most  important,  are  representatives  of  classes.  They 
thought  of  their  deities  as  like  men  but  much  more 
powerful.  The  most  interesting  way  to  indicate  the 
likenesses  and  differences  of  conception  among  the 
different  Celtic  nations  without  going  into  wearisome 
detail  is  to  glance  at  the  different  national  mythological 
cycles.  It  appears  from  these  myths  that,  as  among 
other  peoples  of  similar  development,  there  was  believed 
to  exist  between  gods  and  men  a  class  of  demigods  or 
heroes.  There  is  evidence  of  a  cult  of  the  dead  among 
the  Celts,  and  some  of  their  deities  may  have  been 
deified  mortals. 

202.  Irish  myths. — Three  cycles  of  divine  and  heroic 
myths  are  known  in  Ireland,  one  telling  of  Tuatha  De 
Danann,  another  of  Cuchulainn,  and  the  third  of  Fionn. 
They  are  distinct  hi  character  and  contents,3  though 
the  gods  of  the  first  cycle  often  help  the  heroes  of  the 
later  cycles. 

(i)  Tuatha  De  Danann  means  "the  tribes  or  folk 
of  the  goddess  Danu."4  The  name  appears  to  -have 
been  given  because  the  goddess  had  three  sons,  Brian, 
luchar,  and  lucharbar.  These  sons,  in  the  hands  of 
annalists  and  poets,  are  sometimes  three  kings  and  some- 

1  Cf.  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  40  f . 

•  Cf.  R.  C.  MacLagan,  Scottish  Myths  (Edinburgh,  1882),  pp.  84  ff., 
214  ff. 

3  Ibid.,  chap.  x.  4  Cf.  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  chap.  v. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      293 

times  three  gods.  They  are  associated  with  hills  and 
mounds  which  were  resting-places  of  the  dead.  They 
figure  in  many  a  tale.  In  later  times  they  were  regarded 
as  gods  in  exile,  as  extraordinary  fairies,  and  sometimes 
as  demons.  Danu  is  in  the  mythology  more  important 
than  her  sons.  She  is,  like  Ishtar,  called  the  mother  of 
the  gods.  At  times  she  is  identified  with  a  goddess  of 
culture  and  the  arts,  called  Brigit,  who,  like  Vesta,  was 
in  some  localities  a  goddess  of  fire.  Brigit  was  too 
popular  to  be  suppressed  by  Christianity,  and  survives 
in  Christian  worship  as  Saint  Brigit.  Other  goddesses 
remembered  in  the  traditions  are  Cleena,  Vera,  and  a 
river-goddess,  Clota.  Though  the  Irish  gods  were 
fighters,  there  were  special  war-gods.  More  prominent 
than  these  were  the  war-goddesses  Morrigan,  Neman, 
and  Macha.  Badb  sometimes  takes  the  place  of  one 
of  these.  Women  as  well  as  men  fought  in  ancient 
Ireland,  so  their  goddesses  were  naturally  warriors. 
With  Danu  and  Brigit  were  associated  other  goddesses 
of  fertility,  together  with  their  sons.  The  pre-eminence 
of  goddesses  in  Ireland  has  led  some  to  believe  that  early 
Irish  society  was  matriarchal. 

(2)  The  second  group  of  myths  consists  of  a  cycle  of 
stories  of  one  Cuchulainn,  a  kind  of  demigod.1  The 
tales  are  preserved  in  the  Book  of  the  Dun  Cow  and  the 
Book  of  Leinster  and  must  have  attained  their  present 
form  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  century.  The  tales  are 
supposed,  however,  to  relate  to  a  time  synchronous  with 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  Era.  Cuchulainn  was 
the  son  of  Dechtire,  a  goddess.  One  form  of  the  story 
makes  his  father  the  god  Lug;  in  other  forms  his  father 

1  Ibid.,  chap.  vii. 


294  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

was  Sualtaim  or  Conchobar,  a  brother  of  the  goddess. 
He  possessed  great  strength  and  skill  when  very  young. 
One  of  his  early  exploits  was  the  slaying  of  the  watch 
dog  of  Culann,  the  smith.  To  appease  Culann's  anger 
he  offered  to  act  as  guardian  in  the  dog's  place;  hence 
he  gained  his  name  Cu  Chulainn,  "Culann's  hound." 
At  the  age  of  seven  he  overcame  three  mighty  champions. 
As  he  grew  up  he  was  unrivaled  in  strength,  wisdom,  and 
skill.  Everywhere  women  fell  in  love  with  him.  After 
his  death  it  is  said  that  "thrice  fifty  queens  had  loved 
him."  He  begat  many  children.  For  ten  years  he  was 
the  champion  of  Ulster.  He  fought  many  battles.  His 
love  affairs  and  his  struggles  form  the  subject-matter 
of  the  tales.  He  has  been  compared  to  Herakles  and 
is  regarded  by  some  as  a  solar  hero. 

(3)  The  Fionn  saga  has  to  do  with  the  exploits  of 
Fionn,  a  mythical  hero  of  Leinster,  his  father  Cumal, 
and  his  son  and  grandson.  While  Cuchulainn  has  been 
the  saga  of  the  literary  class,  Fionn  has  been  the  saga 
of  the  people.  It  has  received  constant  additions,  some 
of  them  as  recently  as  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
stories,  like  those  of  all  sagas,  have  to  do  with  hunting, 
fighting,  and  love-making.  They  embody  the  Celtic 
characteristics,  vivacity,  valor,  kindness,  tenderness, 
boastfulness,  and  fiery  temper.  Some  of  the  details, 
such  as  cooking  game  on  red-hot  stones  wrapped  in 
sedge,  reveal  the  primitive  character  of  the  age  in  which 
the  cycle  began.  MacCulloch  believes  that  the  saga 
was  inherited  by  the  Celts  from  their  non-Celtic  pred- 
ecessors in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  As  there  must  have 
been  much  aboriginal  blood  in  the  veins  of  the  common 
people  of  these  countries,  he  accounts  in  this  way  for 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      295 

the  fact  that  among  the  common  people  the  saga  of 
Fionn  was  more  popular  than  that  of  Cuchulainn. 

203.  Myths  of  the  Brythons. — The  myths  of  the 
Celtic  inhabitants  of  England  are  now  chiefly  found  in 
Welsh  sources.  The  chief  of  these  is  the  Mabinogion, 
a  collection  of  tales,  four  of  which  belong  to  the  cycle  of 
King  Arthur.  Two  others  are  attributed  to  the  same 
period,  and  the  rest  are  independent  of  Arthurian 
influence.  The  name  Mabinogion  signifies  "instruction 
for  the  young."  Other  sources  are  poems  such  as  the 
Triads  and  the  Taliesin,  and,  for  the  names  of  the  gods, 
ancient  inscriptions.  The  Brythons  had  their  own 
gods  and  cycles  of  myths,  though  the  forms  assumed  by 
the  myths  in  the  later  poets  (some  of  the  sources  were 
written  or  interpolated  in  the  twelfth  century)  may  have 
been  due  to  Irish  Influence. 

A  goddess  D6n,  the  equivalent  of  Danu,  a  goddess 
of  fertility,  was  the  mother  of  the  deities  Gwydion, 
Gilvaethwy,  Amaethon,  Govannon,  and  Arianrhod, 
with  her  sons  Dylan  and  Llew.  Llew  is  the  Welsh 
form  of  the  Irish  Lug.  In  the  myths  these  deities,  like 
the  gods  and  goddesses  of  Homer,  figure  in  amours, 
quarrels,  trickery,  and  broils.  Another  group  of  gods 
hi  the  Mabinogion  circles  about  Llyr,  whose  name  is 
connected  with  the  Irish  Ler,  a  sea-god.  They  are 
apparently  opposed  to  the  group  of  Don.  Into  the 
stories  of  this  group  elements  from  the  Teutons  and 
Norsemen  have  probably  filtered,  though  it  is  barely 
possible  that  the  features  hi  question  were  native  to  all 
three  peoples.  In  Geoffrey  and  the  chroniclers  Llyr 
became  a  king  whose  story  was  immortalized  by  Shake- 
speare. These  and  many  other  deities  and  demigods 


296  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

figure  as  men  in  Welsh  tales.  Their  loves  and  hates, 
their  rivalries  and  strifes,  are  told  in  various  forms  after 
the  manner  of  early  sagas.  One  of  these  deities  was 
Taliesin,  a  god  of  poetic  inspiration,  often  confused  with 
a  sixth-century  poet  who  bore  the  same  name.1 

204.  Celtic  priests  and  cult. — The  most  venerated 
priests  among  the  Celts  were  the  Druids.  It  has  been 
thought  by  some  that  they  were  a  pre-Celtic  priesthood 
of  Britain2  that  was  adopted  and  honored  by  the  Celts. 
The  theory  appears,  however,  to  be  without  foundation. 
They  were  a  native  Celtic  priesthood.  Druid  means 
"the  very  knowing  or  wise  one,"3  and  the  druids  were 
thought  to  possess  the  key  to  all  knowledge  and  magic. 
They  exercised  authority  in  the  selection  of  rulers  and 
took  precedence  of  kings.  Magical  power  to  give  or 
withhold  rain  or  sunshine,  to  cause  storms,  to  make 
women  and  cattle  fruitful,  to  make  objects  invisible, 
to  produce  magic  sleep,  etc.,  was  attributed  to  them. 
No  sacrifice  was  complete  without  one  of  them.  They 
seem  to  have  been  distinguished  by  some  kind  of  a 
tonsure.  At  the  mistletoe  rite  they  were  dressed  in 
white,  but  at  other  times  they  wore  scarlet  and  gold- 
embroidered  robes  and  golden  necklets  and  bracelets.4 
The  priestly  office  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the 
Druids,  though  they  were  most  honored.  In  the  cults 
of  the  mother-goddesses  priestesses  were  especially 
prominent. 

The  Celtic  year  was  originally  an  agricultural  year, 
and  their  festivals  were  connected  with  the  agricultural 

1  Cf.  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  chap.  vi. 

2  Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  294  f .,  for  details  and  references. 

a  So  Ibid.,  p.  293.  <  Strabo  iv.  275. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      297 

seasons.  The  year  was  ushered  in  on  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber by  the  feast  of  Samhain.1  This  was  apparently  a 
threshing  festival.  Possibly  when  the  Celts  lived  in 
more  southerly  lands  it  had  been  a  harvest  festival. 
At  this  festival  new  fires  were  brought  into  each  house 
from  a  sacred  bonfire,  kindled  probably  by  friction  of 
pieces  of  wood.  The  putting  away  of  old  fires  expelled 
the  spirits  of  evil;  the  new  fire,  obtained  in  this  sacred 
way,  assured  the  ritual  purity  necessary  for  a  festival. 
Forecasts  by  divination,  to  learn  the  fate  for  the  coming 
year,  were  also  made.  Animals  were  slaughtered  for 
winter  consumption.  Samhain  was  also  a  festival  of  the 
dead;  their  ghosts  were  fed  at  this  time.  As  winter 
came  on  the  powers  of  growth  were  suffering  eclipse, 
and  men  sought  by  magical  means  to  aid  them.  This 
they  did  by  means  of  a  bonfire,  from  which  brands  were 
carried  about  and  new  fires  lit  in  every  house.  In  North 
Wales  people  jumped  through  the  fire.  There  was  a 
sacrifice  at  Samhain  and  there  is  some  reason  to  believe 
that  in  early  times  it  was  a  human  sacrifice.  Caesar 
bears  witness  that  hi  his  time  human  sacrifices  were 
offered  by  the  Druids  to  avert  sickness  and  to  secure 
victory  in  battle.2 

Beltane  was  a  spring  festival  celebrated  on  the  first 
of  May.  It  was  a  festival  of  the  sun  shining  in  his 
strength  and  was  intended  to  promote  fertility.  Bon- 
fires were  kindled,  often  on  hills,  lighted  by  friction  from 
a  rotating  wheel.  The  house  fires  were  extinguished. 
Cattle  were  driven  through  fires,  or  between  two 
fires,  to  keep  them  in  health  during  the  year.  Some- 
times the  fire  was  made  beneath  a  sacred  tree  or  pole, 

1  MacCulloch,  op.  tit.,  pp.  258  f .  *  Commentaries  vi.  14. 


298  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

which  has  survived  in  the  Maypole.  Connected  with 
the  festival  was  a  May  king  or  queen  or  both.  These 
represented  the  fertile  powers  of  nature.  Probably 
there  was  a  considerable  amount  of  sexual  laxity,  per- 
mitted for  the  magic  purpose  of  assisting  the  produc- 
tivity of  nature.  The  ritual  marriage  of  the  king  and 
queen  of  the  May  had  the  same  intent.  Sacrifices  were 
offered.  Probably  at  times  a  human  victim  was 
included.1 

Lugnasad,  celebrated  on  the  first  of  August,  took 
its  name  from  the  god  Lug.  Its  ritual  did  not  differ 
materially  from  that  of  Beltane.  Bonfires  were  lighted 
to  represent  the  sun,  and  people  danced  around  them. 
Burning  brands  were  carried  through  the  fields  to  assist 
the  ripening  of  the  crops.  Marriages  were  also  arranged 
at  this  feast,  and  promiscuous  love-making  occurred. 
Like  Beltane,  its  purpose  was  to  secure  a  plenteous 
harvest.2 

The  Celtic  temples  were  sacred  groves.  From  the 
allusions  of  many  writers  we  know  that  they  had  altars. 
These  were  probably  rude  heaps  of  stones.  They 
represented  their  gods  by  images,  and  certain  weapons, 
as  the  hammer  and  axe,  were  also  symbols  of  gods.3 

205.  The  soul  and  the  hereafter. — No  people  except 
the  ancient  Egyptians  have  had  such  a  real  faith  hi  the 
life  after  death  as  the  Celts.  They  did  not  believe 
simply  hi  the  survival  of  the  soul  apart  from  the  body, 
but  they  expected  the  dead  to  live  again  in  bodies 
identical  in  form  and  needs  with  those  which  they  had 
already  inhabited.  There  are  almost  no  Celtic  ghost 

1  MacCulloch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  264  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  268  ff.  J  Ibid.,  chap.  xiz. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      299 

stories.  When  the  dead  appear,  it  is  in  bodies  like  the 
living.  Their  burial  customs  and  literature  all  attest 
their  strong  faith  hi  another  life.  They  believed  that 
the  souls  of  heroes  and  demigods  could  migrate  to  birds, 
animals,  and  the  bodies  of  other  men,  but  they  enter- 
tained no  general  doctrine  of  transmigration  for  all. 
They  had  a  keen  and  persistent  faith  in  an  elysium,  but 
it  was  for  deities  and  heroes.  Ordinary  men  were  to 
live  their  future  life  here  on  the  earth.  The  insular 
Celts  held  that  this  elysium  was  situated  on  an  island 
in  the  Western  Sea,  and  their  poets  never  tired  of  singing 
of  the  magic  beauty  of  this  "sweet  and  blessed  country." 
206.  The  Teutons,  like  the  Celts,  belong  to  the  Indo- 
European  race.  They  came  into  Western  Europe  later 
than  the  Celts  and  pushed  the  Celts  gradually  to  the 
extreme  western  regions  which  they  now  occupy.  The 
Germans  had  reached  the  region  of  the  Rhine  before 
58  B.C.,  for  Caesar  found  them  there.  Other  waves  of 
Teutons  came  later,  the  Goths,  East  Goths,  and  Vandals 
surging  westward  as  late  as  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 
Caesar's  information  concerning  the  Germans  was  of 
the  vaguest  sort.1  Tacitus,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the 
first  and  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  A.D.,  and 
who  was  at  one  time  a  Roman  official  among  the  Ger- 
mans, knew  them  much  better,  and  his  Germania  is  our 
oldest  extended  source  of  information  concerning  them. 
The  Germans,  as  described  by  Tacitus,  consisted  of 
various  tribes  that  often  made  war  on  one  another. 
They  were  not  savages  but  lacked  many  institutions 
found  among  peoples  of  more  advanced  culture.  They 
lived  from  the  chase  and  from  their  flocks,  though 

1  Cf .  Commentaries  i.  i  and  vi.  21  ff. 


300  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

agriculture  was  not  unknown  to  them.  The  names  of 
the  tribes  known  to  Tacitus  have  long  since  disappeared. 
Even  in  his  day,  however,  the  Germans  treasured  in 
songs,  of  which  they  were  very  fond,  the  deeds  of  their 
heroes. 

207.  The  religion  of  the  Teutons,  as  reported  by 
Tacitus,  centered,  like  that  of  the  Celts,  in  sacred  groves, 
in  which  the  silence  of  the  forest  seemed  to  bring  them 
especially  near  to  the  divine.  According  to  Tacitus 
their  chief  god  was  Mercury.  It  was  thus  that  he  desig- 
nated Wodan  (Odin),  a  god  of  the  wind,  of  agriculture, 
and  of  poetry.  Tacitus  was  probably  led  to  regard 
Wodan  as  the  principal  deity  because  the  Romans  were 
accustomed  to  identify  the  chief  Celtic  god  with  him. 
To  Wodan  human  victims  were  offered  on  certain  days. 
The  next  god  mentioned  by  Tacitus  was  Hercules. 
Some  of  the  gods  identified  with  Hercules  were  Celtic 
or  Roman,  but  among  some  of  the  Teutons  the  Hercules 
mentioned  in  inscriptions  was  Donar  or  Thor,  the  god 
of  thunderstorms,  who  was  regarded  as  a  god  of  fertility. 
The  Mars,  whom  Tacitus  next  mentions,  was  Tiu 
(Ziu,  Tyr),  a  sky-god  who  was  also  a  god  of  war.  The 
name  is  held  by  many  scholars  to  be  identical  with  Zeus 
and  Dyaush.  Tacitus  also  mentions  a  goddess  Isis, 
whom  he  believed  on  inadequate  grounds  to  be  Egyp- 
tian. She  was  probably  Frija,  a  mother-goddess  com- 
mon to  all  the  Teutons.  He  also  mentioned  that  the 
northern  Germans  worshiped  Mother  Earth  as  a  goddess 
called  Nerthus.  Perhaps  it  was  in  connection  with  the 
worship  of  this  mother-goddess  that  they  reverenced 
woman,  attributing  to  her  a  spirit  of  augury  and  proph- 
ecy that  was  regarded  as  celestial. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      301 

The  Teutons  continued  in  contact  with  the  Romans 
for  more  than  five  centuries.  It  is  impossible,  however, 
to  learn  that  their  religion  was  influenced  by  this  con- 
tact. Inscriptions  to  gods,  probably  Teutonic,  were  set 
up  in  many  places,  but  the  Roman  soldiers  called  the 
Teutonic  deities  by  Roman  names.  It  is  a  matter  of 
conjecture  what  gods  were  intended  in  each  case. 
Isolated  facts  come  to  light  here  and  there.  These  con- 
firm the  picture  drawn  by  Tacitus.  The  human  sacri- 
fices of  the  Teutons  seem  to  have  particularly  impressed 
the  Romans. 

208.  The  Teutons  and  Christianity. — The  nominal 
conversion  of  the  Teutons  to  Christianity  did  not  at 
first  radically  modify  either  their  ideas  or  their  morals. 
"The  West-Goths  were  converted  in  the  fourth  century, 
about  375;  then  the  East-Goths  and  Vandals;  early  in 
the  fifth  century  the  Burgundians,  later  the  Franks;  in 
the  sixth,  Alamannians  and  Lombards;  Bavarians  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth;  Frisians,  Hessians,  and  Thurin- 
gians  in  the  eighth;  Saxons  in  the  ninth.  This  is  for 
the  Continent.  Anglo-Saxons  were  converted  about 
600  and  took  the  lion's  share  in  converting  their  Con- 
tinental brethren.  Scandinavians  accepted  Christianity 
in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries."1  Most  of  the 
Teutons  embraced  the  Arian  form  of  Christianity.  At 
first  the  Christian  religion  seems  to  have  been  carried 
by  missionaries,  like  Ulfilas,  or  by  prisoners  of  war. 
Later,  for  military  or  political  reasons,  whole  tribes 
went  over  to  Christianity  in  a  body.  The  classical 
example  of  this  is  the  conversion  of  Chlodowech  (Clovis), 
king  of  the  Franks,  who  was  baptized  on  Christmas 

XF.  B.  Gummere,  Germanic  Origins  (New  York,  1892),  p.  19. 


302  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Day,  496  A.D.,  and  whose  conversion  was  followed  by  the 
profession  of  Christianity  on  the  part  of  many  Franks. 
An  even  better  example  of  rapid  conversion  is  afforded 
by  the  Burgundians,  who  were  baptized  by  a  Gallic 
bishop  after  having  been  instructed  for  a  period  of  only 
one  week.1  Such  conversions  did  not  immediately 
eradicate  the  old  religion,  and  in  the  complaints  of 
Christian  writers  of  the  practices  of  Teutonic  Christians 
we  learn  something  of  Teutonic  heathenism.  Thus  a 
missionary  found  among  the  Alamanni  both  heathens 
and  Christians  taking  part  in  a  beer  sacrifice  to  Wodan.2 
Three  goddesses,  probably  survivals  from  the  Celtic 
occupation  of  their  country,  were  also  worshiped  by  this 
tribe.3  Among  the  Thuringians  a  complaint  was  made 
as  late  as  the  eighth  century  that  Christian  priests 
offered  sacrifice  to  heathen  divinities,  and  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  heathens  administered  baptism  as  a  magical 
charm.4  The  Frisians,  who  occupied  a  strip  of  land 
extending  from  the  North  Sea  in  Flanders  to  Sleswick, 
retained  their  sacred  groves,  sacred  springs,  and  temples, 
and  stored  their  treasure  in  them.  They  had  several 
temples  on  Helgoland.  They  retained  the  worship  of 
heathen  gods,  among  whom  Thor,  Tiu,  and  Frija 
are  mentioned.5  Charlemagne  hi  the  eighth  century 
subdued  the  Saxons  and  compelled  them  to  accept 
Christianity  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty.  They 
worshiped  Thor,  Wodan,  and  a  national  god,  Saxnot. 
We  hear  also  of  a  sacred  wooden  pillar  of  unusual  size 

'P.  D.  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  The  Religion  of  the  Teutons 
(Boston,  1002),  p.  116. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  120.  « Ibid.,  p.  xax. 

*  Ibid.  slbid.,  p.  122. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      303 

among  them,  called  Irminsul.1  As  among  other  peoples 
religious  ideas  and  customs  were  hard  to  eradicate,  and 
many  of  these  were  taken  over  with  Christian  names  and 
Christian  interpretations  into  Teutonic  Christianity. 

209.  The  German  heroic  sagas. — The  best  known 
of  the  sagas  is  the  Nibelungenlied,  but  there  are  several 
others — the  Saga  of  the  East  Goths,  the  Hartungen 
Saga,  and  the  Hildebrand  Lay.  The  beginnings  of 
these  sagas  go  back  to  the  period  of  migrations  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  In  particular  the  heroes 
who  struggled  against  the  inroads  of  the  Huns  are 
celebrated.  The  sagas  themselves  took  shape  much 
later.  The  Nibelungen,  for  example,  was,  in  its  present 
form,  written  in  Christian  tunes.  Its  heroes  and  heroines 
are  baptized  and  attend  mass.  Space  forbids  an  analysis 
of  these  poems  or  an  outline  of  their  story.  Like  all  the 
heroic  poems  of  early  peoples  they  celebrate  the  deeds 
of  heroes.  In  the  lapse  of  time  the  doings  of  a  god  or  a 
mythological  being  were  added  to  the  deeds  of  a  hero. 
The  importance  of  a  study  of  these  sagas  for  the  history 
of  religion  is  that  a  discriminating  analysis  enables  the 
student  to  learn  the  type  of  nature-myth  that  was 
current  among  the  ancient  Teutons.*  Thus  it  is  believed 
that  the  Saga  of  the  East  Goths  and  the  Hartungen 
Saga  have  been  influenced  by  a  myth  of  the  Dioscuri 
(Castor  and  Pollux).  The  Hildebrand  Lay,  the  story 
of  a  hero  who,  condemned  to  be  slain,  is  cast  out,  grows 
up  among  strangers,  becomes  a  wanderer,  and  fights 
dragons,  contains  elements  kindred  to  the  story  of  Odys- 
seus, the  Celtic  Cuchulainn,  and  similar  stories  among 
other  nations.  The  similarity  of  these  stories  is  thought 

1  Ibid.,  p.  1 23.  2  Ibid.,  chap.  vii. 


304  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

by  some  to  indicate  that  they  reflect,  in  part,  a  nature- 
myth. 

The  Nibelungenlied  tells  the  story  of  Siegfried,  a 
hero  who  grew  up  in  a  forest  without  knowledge  of  his 
parents,  but  under  the  care  of  a  cunning  smith.  In 
combat  with  a  dragon  he  came  into  possession  of  a 
boundless  treasure.  He  then  rode  through  fire  and 
liberated  a  maid  on  a  mountain,  whom  he  awoke  from 
magic  sleep.  Later,  under  the  influence  of  a  draught 
of  oblivion,  he  forsook  her  and  came  under  the  influence 
of  a  race  of  demons,  the  Nibelungen,  whose  sister  he 
wedded,  and  through  whom  he  lost  his  treasure,  his 
former  bride,  and  finally  his  life.  The  tale  deals  un- 
doubtedly with  many  historic  characters,  but  Siegfried 
is  believed  by  many  to  be  a  purely  mythical  sun-hero. 
Whether  he  represents  the  day,  who  rides  through  the 
light  of  dawn  to  awaken  the  sun,  and  finally  dies  in 
night;  or  summer,  who  through  the  light  of  spring 
awakens  life  on  the  earth,  only  to  die  in  winter,  is 
regarded  as  uncertain.  The  sagas  thus  help  us  to  see 
what  sort  of  nature-myths  mingled  with  the  Teutonic 
conceptions  of  gods  and  heroes.  They  also  reveal  to 
us  the  world  of  dragons,  demons,  and  giants  in  the 
midst  of  which  the  Teutons  believed  themselves  to 
live. 

210.  The  Anglo-Saxons,  or  Saxons,  who  penetrated 
England  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  at  first  held 
fast  to  their  heathenism,  although  Christianity  had 
found  a  home  among  their  Celtish  predecessors  in 
Britain  as  early  as  200  A.D.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  they  maintained  their  ancestral  rites  until  they 
were  converted  to  Christianity  after  the  middle  of  the 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      305 

sixth  century.  The  literature  they  have  left  us  is  all 
Christian,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Continental  Teutons, 
they  brought  into  Christianity  so  many  of  their  ancestral 
ideas  and  customs  that  some  glimpses  of  then:  ancient 
heathenism  may  be  discerned.  They  worshiped  the 
Saxon  god  Saxneat  (Saxnot),  the  gods  Wodan,  Thor 
(called  by  them  Thunor),  Tiu,  and  Baeldaeg,  the  Norse 
Baldr.  Nicors  or  water  sprites  were  also  reverenced. 
Mother  Earth  was  tilled  with  all  manner  of  symbolic 
rites  and  formulas  that  were  supposed  to  promote 
fertility.  Running  water  was  believed  to  possess 
magic  power  for  healing  sickness.  Rheumatic  pains 
were  thought  to  be  brought  into  the  limbs  by  gods, 
elves,  or  hags.  They  were  cast  out  by  incantations  in 
which  more  powerful  spirits  were  invoked. 

In  the  epic  Beowulf,  completed  in  its  present  form 
not  later  than  the  eighth  century,  a  number  of  sagas 
contemporaneous  with  the  immigration  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  are  gathered  up.  There  is  in  the  epic  something 
of  history  and  something  of  myth,  as  well  as  later 
Christian  elements.  The  poem  relates  how  a  Danish 
king,  Hrothgar,  built  a  splendid  hall,  Heorot.  A 
monster,  Grendel,  carried  off  from  this  hall  every  night 
thirty  thanes.  No  one  was  able  to  hinder  it  until 
Beowulf,  a  Geat,  slew  Grendel  and  afterward,  hi  the 
depths  of  the  sea,  GrendePs  mother.  Enriched  with 
spoils  Beowulf  returned  to  his  native  land  and  became 
king  of  the  Geatas.  After  a  long  and  glorious  reign 
he  undertook  to  fight  a  dragon  who  guarded  a  great 
treasure.  He  was  slain,  but  not  until  he  had  slain  the 
dragon.  He  died  satisfied  that  he  had  won  a  great 
treasure  of  gold  for  his  people.  It  is  believed  by  some 


306  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

scholars  that  there  are  in  this  story  the  same  elements 
of  a  sun-myth  that  they  find  in  the  tale  of  Siegfried.1 

211.  The  Scandinavians. — Our  sources  of  knowledge 
for  the  Scandinavian  religion  are  the  so-called  Eddas. 
These  consist  of  the  Elder  or  Poetic  Edda,  a  collection 
of  thirty-two  poems  composed  at  different  periods  from 
the  ninth  century  onward;  and  the  Younger  or  Prose 
Edda  composed  by  the  Icelander  Snorri  Sturluson  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  authors  of  the  Eddie  poems, 
though  born  in  Norway,  were  deeply  affected  by  con- 
ceptions, stories,  and  poems  from  the  British  Isles.2 
In  these  works  Teutonic  heathenism  appears  in  a  purer 
form  than  in  any  other  literary  sources.  The  Scandi- 
navians worshiped  Odin  (Wodan)  as  All-Father,  Tyr 
(Tiu),  Bragi,  a  god  of  poetry,  Thor,  Frigg  (Frija),  who 
as  Freya  appears  at  times  as  a  separate  goddess,  and 
Baldr,  a  god  of  light.  A  masculine  form  of  Frigg, 
called  Freyr,  also  bore  the  name  Sviagodh,  "god  of 
Sweden."  A  mother-goddess,  Nerthus,  and  her  mas- 
culine counterpart,  N9rdhr,  were  also  widely  worshiped 
outside  of  Sweden.  Loki  often  appears  in  the  poems 
as  a  divine  name,  but  it  is  uncertain  whether  he  was  a 
real  god  or  was  fabricated  by  poets.  Other  deities, 
many  of  them  late  in  appearing,  and  developed  perhaps 
by  epithets  from  older  gods,  were  Forsete,  Heimdallr, 
Hcenir,  Ullr,  Vidharr,  Vali,  and  the  goddesses  Sif  and 
Idunn. 

Those  most  widely  worshiped  among  the  Teutons 
were  Odin,  Thor,  Tyr,  and  Frigg,  though,  as  already 

'P.  D.  Cantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  The  Religion  of  the  Teutons, 
chap.  viii. 

3  See  S.  Bugge,  The  Home  of  the  Eddie  Poems  (translated  by  W.  H. 
Schofield,  London,  1899),  p.  xvii. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      307 

noted,  their  names  in  Germany  had  slightly  different 
forms.  The  characteristics  of  these  deities  have  already 
been  indicated. 

212.  Spirits. — In  addition  to  the  gods  there  was  a 
widespread  belief,  which  existed  from  the  earliest  times, 
though  it  underwent  special  development  in  the  later 
literature,  in  groups  of  female  spirits  known  as  Wal- 
kyries,  Swan-maidens,  and  Norns.     The  word  Walkyrie 
is  found  only  in  Norse  and  Anglo-Saxon,  but  belief  in 
these  spirits  as  Swan-maidens  is  found  in  Germany  also. 
They  are  the  spirits  that  give  victory  in  battle.     They 
themselves  took  part  in  battle.     They  were  supernatural 
heroines.     The  Norns  were  similar  beings,  who  deter- 
mined fate.     Often  they  cannot  be  distinguished  from 
the  Walkyrie.     The  world  was  also  thought  to  be  peopled 
by  elves,  dwarfs,  and  giants,  beings  that  figure  in  many 
a  Teutonic  tale. 

213.  Temple,    priesthood,    and    cult. — The    sacred 
places  of  the  Teutons  in  the  time  of  Tacitus  were  groves. 
In  Germany  this  continued  to  be  the  case  down  to  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.     Indeed  a  number  of  these 
continued  to  be  venerated  long  after  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  and  were  suppressed  by  the  church  only 
with  the  greatest   difficulty.    In   the  grove   the  gods 
dwelt;  to  it  sacrifices  were  brought;  it  was  approached 
with  feelings  of  reverence  and  awe.     Temples  are  some- 
times also  mentioned,  but  their  form  is  uncertain.     In 
Scandinavia  and  Iceland  we  hear  of  many  temples. 
At  least  four  large  temples  existed  in  Denmark;  over  a 
hundred  are  known  to  have  existed  in  Norway  and 
several  hi  Sweden.     That  at  Upsala  was  wholly  equipped 
with  gold.     In  Iceland  the  old  religion  was  thoroughly 


308  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

organized.  The  country  was  divided  into  districts, 
each  one  of  which  was  furnished  with  a  certain  number 
of  temples,  making  thirty-nine  in  all.  The  Norwegian 
and  Icelandic  temples  consisted  of  two  buildings,  an 
oblong  structure  in  which  the  festivals  were  held,  and 
a  semicircular  building  at  one  end  of  this  and  separate 
from  it,  which  contained  the  images  of  the  gods  and  the 
altar. 

Tacitus  declares  that  the  Germans  did  not  make 
images  of  their  gods,  but  in  later  times  they  certainly 
employed  them.  The  use  of  images  among  them  can 
be  traced  back  to  the  fourth  century.  The  Teutons 
had  priests  and  priestesses,  though  there  appears  to 
have  been  no  organized  priesthood  among  them  like 
that  of  the  Druids  among  the  Celts.  The  priesthood 
appears  to  have  been  exercised  by  a  sort  of  nobility. 
It  exerted  a  powerful  influence  from  the  time  of  Tacitus 
onward.  Customs  varied  in  different  localities.  The 
goddess  Nerthus  had  a  male  priest,  while  the  god 
Freyr  at  Upsala  was  attended  by  a  priestess. 

Sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  Teutonic  gods,  but,  as 
far  as  our  information  goes,  these  were  determined  by 
necessities  of  state  rather  than  by  an  elaborate  ritual. 
Human  sacrifices  appear  to  have  been  not  infrequent. 
Prisoners  of  war  especially  were  often  reserved  to  be 
offered  to  deities. 

The  early  Teutons  possessed  no  calendar,  and  their 
feasts  do  not  appear  to  have  been  as  thoroughly  sys- 
tematized as  those  of  the  Celts.  Sometimes  we  read 
of  two  gatherings  each  year,  sometimes  of  three,  some- 
times of  four.  These  were  held  in  different  localities  at 
different  times.  When  there  were  two  festivals  one 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      309 

was  held  about  the  first  of  May  and  the  other  in  the 
autumn  at  Martinmas.  Scandinavian  sagas  mention 
three  festivals,  all  held  in  the  winter.  The  great  festival 
of  Scandinavia  was  Yuletide,  the  mid-winter  feast. 
This  is,  however,  thought  not  to  be  ancient.  Among  the 
Danes  we  hear  of  a  great  festival,  the  Thietmar,  which 
occurred  once  in  nine  years.  While  it  is  probable  that 
these  feasts  were  originally  connected  with  the  agri- 
cultural divisions  of  the  year  or  the  course  of  the  sun,  it 
is  not  possible  to  trace  a  connection  as  close  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Celtic  feasts.1 

214.  Cosmogony,  the  soul,  and  eschatology. — Only 
in  the  Norse  mythology  is  there  a  complete  theory  of 
the  origin  of  the  world.  There  is  some  evidence  through 
Christian  sources  that  other  Teutons  were  interested 
in  the  subject,  but  we  have  no  means  of  knowing  just 
what  their  ideas  were.  According  to  the  Norse  con- 
ception there  was,  at  the  beginning  of  things,  a  yawning 
abyss,  on  the  south  of  which  was  Musspellsheim,  the 
home  of  heat,  and  on  its  north  Niflheim,  the  home  of  cold 
or  mist.  Sparks  from  the  former  crossed  the  abyss  and 
fell  on  the  ice  fields  of  the  latter.  They  melted  some  of 
the  ice  and  the  result  was  a  living  giant  Ymir.  A  cow 
also  came  to  life,  from  whose  milk  Ymir  was  nourished. 
From  Ymir's  flesh  the  earth  was  created;  from  his 
bones  the  mountains,  from  his  skull  the  sky,  and  from 
his  blood  the  sea.  Other  giants  multiplied,  and  from 
them  the  gods  descended.  The  idea  that  the  world 
was  formed  from  a  giant's  body  is  found  in  India*  as 
well  as  in  many  parts  of  the  world.  The  world  was 

1  See  S.  Bugge,  The  Home  of  the  Eddie  Poems,  chaps,  xix  and  rx. 
*  See  supra,  pp.  148  ff. 


310  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

divided  into  nine  districts.  Asgard  and  Jotunheim 
(home  of  the  giants)  had  been  appropriated  by  gods 
and  demigods,  but  the  middle  part  of  the  world  (Mid- 
gard)  the  gods  had  prepared  as  a  home  for  man. 
Beneath  it  was  situated  Hel,  the  abode  of  the  dead. 
This  was  at  least  a  later  view.  At  one  time  Hel  was 
located  in  Jutland. 

The  Teutons  all  believed  in  life  after  death.  Their 
belief  was  of  the  common  animistic  type.  Apparently 
after  a  while  the  dead  faded  away.  They  thought  of  the 
soul  as  existing  apart  from  the  body.  Among  them  no 
such  conception  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  was 
entertained  as  is  found  among  the  Egyptians  and  Celts. 
Among  the  Norse  a  man  was  believed  to  have  a  sort 
of  second  ego,  or  fylgja.  It  was  thought  that  this  was 
identical  with  his  soul,  which  dwells  in  his  body  and 
leaves  it  at  death,  but  during  his  lifetime  was  believed 
to  lead  an  independent  existence.  In  the  earlier  time 
the  dead  were  believed  to  reside  in  the  lower  world  or 
Hel.  In  the  thought  of  later  Norse  and  Icelandic  poets, 
however,  souls  were  believed  to  be  wind.  The  sighing 
and  howling  of  the  wind,  especially  at  night,  were  thought 
to  be  the  cries  of  departed  souls.  The  dead  at  times 
were  thought  to  come  to  life  again.  Souls  could  not 
only  come  back  into  bodies  again  but  could  change  their 
forms  and  take  the  shape  of  animals  or  birds.  This  is 
the  substance  of  the  belief  in  werewolves  and  the  Norse 
bersekers. 

In  the  Viking  period  there  was  developed  in  the  North 
belief  in  a  Walhalla,  or  heroes'  paradise.  Into  it  those 
who  had  fallen  hi  battle  were  admitted  and  there  led 
a  life  of  feasting  and  joyous  combat. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  CELTS  AND  TEUTONS      311 

In  the  later  Edda  it  is  declared  that  a  time  will 
come  when  there  will  be  a  Fimbul-winter  (three  winters 
without  an  intervening  summer).  The  ship  Naglfar 
(nail  ship),  built  from  the  nails  of  the  dead,  will  come 
from  the  land  of  the  giants.  It  will  bring  Hrymr  to  the 
final  conflict.  Tyr  and  the  dog  Garm  will  kill  each 
other,  vengeance  will  be  taken  on  the  Fernis-wolf,  and 
after  this  a  new  earth  and  a  rejuvenated  race  of  gods 
will  arise  from  the  waters.  These  conceptions  of  final 
struggle  and  a  new  earth  were  undoubtedly  shaped  under 
the  stimulus  of  Christian  eschatology. 

215.  Summary. — The  religions  of  the  Celts  and 
Teutons,  like  those  of  Babylon  and  Egypt,  were  religions 
of  peoples  emerging  from  a  primitive  state  to  a  period 
of  literary  expression.  They  have  contributed  to  the 
literatures  of  Western  Europe  many  a  character, 
literary  theme,  and  illustration.  They  have  given  to 
our  race  and  kindred  peoples  their  May  Day  festivals 
and  to  Halloween  and  some  festivals  such  as  All  Saints 
Day,  Martinmas,  and  Christmas  a  number  of  their 
characteristic  customs.  They  have  contributed  to  the 
calendar  of  saints  other  names  than  St.  Brigit.  It  is 
in  ways  such  as  these  that  these  religions  have  made 
to  our  civilization  a  contribution  such  that  no  educated 
person  can  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  them.  To  the  vital 
religious  ideas  of  the  modern  world  they  have  offered 
no  important  contribution. 


312  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sees.  199-205  read  J.  A.  MacCulloch,  The  Religion  of  the 
Ancient  Celts  (Edinburgh,  1911). 

On  sees.  206-214  read  P.  D.  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  The  Religion 
of  the  Teutons  (Boston,  1902),  supplementing  this  for  sec.  214 
by  A.  Johnson's  "The  Religion  of  the  Teutons"  in  Religions 
of  the  Past  and  Present,  edited  by  J.  A.  Montgomery  (Phila- 
delphia, 1918). 

CLASS  B 

The  articles  "Celts"  and,  when  published,  "Teutons,"  in  J.  Hast- 
ings, Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  (New  York,  1908). 


CHAPTER  XVI 
CHRISTIANITY 

For  the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost. — Luke  19:10. 

Christ  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God. — I  Cor.  i :  24. 

And  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we 
beheld  his  glory,  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father), 
full  of  grace  and  truth. — John  i :  14. 

216.  Jesus  was  born  in  Palestine  in  the  reign  of 
Herod  the  Great  shortly  before  the  year  i  of  our  era. 
The  exact  year  of  his  birth  is  unknown.1  His  mother 
was  the  wife  of  a  carpenter  hi  Nazareth,  and  he  was 
brought  up  to  the  same  trade,  which  he  followed  until 
about  thirty  years  old.  Shortly  before  he  reached  that 
age  John  the  Baptist  had  begun  to  preach  that  the 
Kingdom  of  God3  was  near  and  to  baptize  men  in  token 
of  their  desire  to  be  ready  for  its  coming.  Jesus  went 
to  be  baptized  of  John,  and  as  he  was  coming  out  of  the 
water  a  voice  from  heaven  spoke  in  his  soul  declaring 
that  he  was  the  Son  of  God — the  expected  Messiah.  He 
had  been  reared  among  those  who  shared  the  messianic 
expectations  of  his  people,  and  probably  had  shared  in 
the  belief  in  such  a  Messiah  as  that  portrayed  in  Enoch, 
chaps.  46  and  48.  The  conviction  that  he  was  to  fulfil 

1  For  a  discussion  of  the  data  see  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the 
Bible  (Philadelphia,  1916),  Part  II,  chap.  xrvi. 
*  See  above,  chap,  v,  sec.  90. 


314  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

these  messianic  expectations  overwhelmed  him,  and  he 
withdrew  to  the  wilderness  to  think  out  what  it  meant. 
The  story  of  his  struggle  there  is  embodied  in  the  narra- 
tives of  the  temptation.1  From  this  struggle  he  came 
forth  with  a  new  conception  of  the  messiahship  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  He  had  put  the  political  ideal 
definitely  behind  his  back.  That  ideal  involved  the 
establishment  of  a  rule  over  the  bodies  of  men  by  force 
of  arms;  he  chose  to  do  the  will  of  God  in  establishing 
a  rule  over  men's  hearts  by  self-sacrifice  and  love.  He 
still  held  to  a  messianic  mission,  but  it  was  as  a  king  of 
the  spiritual  and  not  the  political  realm.  He  chose  as 
his  self -designation  the  term  "  Son  of  Man,"  a  term  that 
had  been  employed  in  a  messianic  sense  in  Enoch,*  but 
which  in  the  dialect  employed  in  Galilee  also  means 
simply  "man."  In  his  teaching  concerning  the  King- 
dom, Jesus  taught  that  it  is  every  man's  privilege  to 
come  under  the  direct  personal  guidance  of  God.  The 
Kingdom  was  no  longer  simply  a  monarchy  with  God  as 
a  far-off  sovereign;  it  was  a  family,  of  which  God  is  the 
loving  Father.  All  men  are  brethren.  The  parable  of 
the  Prodigal  Son  gives  us  the  heart  of  his  message.  In 
his  person  Jesus  exhibited  the  ideal  of  one  who  enjoyed 
to  the  full  personal  relations  with  the  Father.  He  was 
thus  a  fitting  Messiah  of  the  Kingdom  which  he  pro- 
claimed. 

He  chose  twelve  peasants  to  be  his  disciples  and 
companions,  and  spent  some  fifteen  months  or  a  little 
more,  traveling  here  and  there  in  their  company,  preach- 

1  For  a  fuller  interpretation  of  the  temptation,  see  G.  A.  Barton, 
The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message  (New  York,  1912),  pp.  8-10. 
J  In  Enoch  46:2,  4;  48:2. 


CHRISTIANITY  315 

ing  and  healing.1  Not  until  toward  the  end  of  this 
period  did  he  disclose  even  to  them  that  he  claimed  to 
be  the  Messiah,  and  even  then  they  did  not  understand 
how  his  conception  of  messiahship  differed  from  current 
Jewish  conceptions.  His  uncompromising  denuncia- 
tions of  sham,  his  emphasis  upon  personal  righteousness, 
the  light  value  that  he  set  upon  ceremonial,  and  his 
popularity  with  the  poor  set  the  hierarchy  against  him, 
and  they  accomplished  his  crucifixion  about  28  or  29  A.D. 
On  the  third  day  after  this  his  disciples  were  convinced 
by  experiences  that  came  to  several  of  them  that  he  was 
still  alive;  they  were  filled  with  joy,  and  formed  a  little 
group  of  Jews  who  held  that  the  Messiah  had  come  in 
the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Jesus  himself  wrote  nothing.  His  matchless  dis- 
courses and  parables,  in  which  he  revealed  the  depth  of 
his  penetrating  insight  into  the  nature  of  man  and  God, 
were  treasured  in  the  memories  of  loving  disciples. 
Perhaps  memory  was  aided  here  and  there  by  hastily 
made  notes,  but  the  Gospels  were  not  written  until  later. 

217.  The  early  Jewish  church. — The  little  band  of 
followers  that  Jesus  left  had  no  thought  that  loyalty  to 
him  demanded  a  separation  from  their  fellow-Jews. 
They  believed  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  but,  in 
accordance  with  the  messianic  expectations2  of  some  of 
their  Jewish  brethren,  they  believed  that  he  had  been 
caught  up  to  heaven  to  be  revealed  in  power  at  some 
future  time.  Christians  differed  from  their  Jewish 

IThis  is  the  chronology  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke.  As  these 
were  composed  considerably  earlier  than  John,  they  are  generally  thought 
to  be  more  authoritative  sources  in  matters  of  history. 

*  Apoc.  of  Baruch  30:  i. 


316  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

brethren  simply  in  believing  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  the  Messiah,  and  that,  when  the  Messiah  was 
revealed,  he  would  be  their  loved  Master.  In  their 
thought  of  him  and  his  Kingdom  the  spiritual  con- 
ceptions which  he  had  taught  and  which  they  had  only 
half  understood  fell  into  the  background.  The  current 
Jewish  apocalyptic  expectations  took  their  place. 
Among  Christians  the  Kingdom  of  God  took  on  a 
wholly  Jewish  coloring.  The  Jewish  belief  in  a  Paradise 
for  the  righteous  and  a  Gehenna  for  the  wicked,  which 
Jesus  had  confirmed,  assumed  the  form  given  to  it  in  the 
Jewish  apocalypses.  Christianity  was  for  a  time  a  Jewish 
sect.  Its  leaders  punctiliously  observed  Jewish  ritual.1 
218.  Paul,  whose  Hebrew  name  was  Saul,  was  born 
in  Tarsus  in  Cilicia.  His  family  appears  to  have  settled 
there  when  the  city  was  reconstructed  by  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  in  171  B.c.,a  and  probably  obtained  Roman 
citizenship  in  the  transition  from  the  republic  to  the 
empire.  Saul  was  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  be  educated, 
and  was  trained  by  Gamaliel  in  the  liberal  wing  of 
Pharisaism.  Later  he  returned  to  Jerusalem  to  live. 
His  logical  mind  led  him  to  attempt  to  eradicate  Chris- 
tianity as  a  curse  to  Judaism.  He  connected  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus  with  the  statement  in  Deut.  21:23, 
that  he  that  is  hanged  is  cursed  of  God,  and  that  the 
curse  might  spread  to  the  land.  In  his  view  all  who 
became  Christians  shared  the  curse  of  Jesus.3  Then  he 

'See  Acts  3: i  ff. 

'See  W.  M.  Ramsay,  The  Cities  of  St.  Paul  (New  York,  1908), 
pp.  180  ff. 

*  See  Gal.  3:13  and  its  interpretation  in  Barton,  The  Heart  of  the 
Christian  Message,  pp.  29  f. 


CHRISTIANITY  317 

had  a  vision  which  convinced  him  that  Jesus  had  risen 
from  the  dead.  His  whole  rabbinical  education  led 
him,  in  consequence  of  this,  to  regard  Jesus  as  a  man 
especially  honored  of  God.  God  did  not  honor  liars; 
Jesus  must,  accordingly,  be  the  Messiah,  as  he  had 
claimed.  Paul  thus  became  a  Christian.  Moreover, 
he  recognized  that  Jesus  occupied  a  place  where,  in  spite 
of  the  ceremonial  curse  of  the  law,  God  bestowed  his 
favor.  Paul  concluded,  then,  that  all  who  identify 
themselves  with  Jesus  shared  this  favor,  even  though 
they  did  not  keep  the  Jewish  law.1  He  accordingly 
became  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  and  by  a  stormy 
ministry  of  more  than  thirty  years  broke  the  Jewish 
bonds.  During  this  period  there  was  evolution  in  Paul's 
thought.  For  a  long  time  he  continued  to  think  of 
Jesus  as  the  Jewish  Messiah  and  to  accept  the  Jewish 
apocalyptic.2  In  time,  however,  contact  with  the  world 
of  Greek  thought,  and  especially  the  necessity  of  com- 
bating incipient  Gnosticism,  led  him  to  discard  apoca- 
lyptic views,  and  to  regard  Jesus  as  the  incarnation  of 
the  creative  power  by  which  God  had  made  the  world, 
and  the  World-Soul  that  holds  all  things  together.3 
This  was  the  first  step  in  that  development  of  thought 
about  Jesus  that  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

Throughout  his  entire  career  Paul  was  a  profound 
mystic.  He  held  that  the  believer  may  be  so  filled 
with  Christ — so  united  to  him  hi  fellowship — that  he 
is  one  with  Christ;  what  the  believer  does  Christ 

1  Barton,  The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message,  pp.  33  ff . 
»Cf.  I  Thess.  4:13  ff.J  II  Thess.,  chap.  2. 
»Cf.  Col.  1:15-17. 


3i8  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

does.1    Paul  found  Christianity  a  Jewish  sect;  he  left  it 
a  religion  universal  in  its  scope. 

219.  The  Gospel  of  John  was  composed  about 
100  A.D.,  probably  at  Ephesus  in  Asia  Minor.  The  pur- 
pose of  its  author  was  so  to  tell  the  story  of  the  life  and 
teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  commend  the  Christian  religion 
to  the  complex  thought  of  his  time.  Gnosticism, 
incipient  in  the  time  of  Paul,  was  now  more  thoroughly 
developed.  At  its  base  lay  the  late  Zoroastrian  con- 
ception of  two  gods,  a  god  of  good  and  a  god  of  evil. 
Matter  was  the  creation  of  the  evil  god.  Judaism  was 
by  this  time  in  open  opposition  to  Christianity,  and  it 
was  necessary  to  repulse  its  attacks.  The  disciples  of 
John  the  Baptist  still  formed  a  separate  sect  that  sought 
to  rival  Christianity.  In  the  church  itself  there  was  a 
tendency  to  lay  too  great  stress  upon  organization  and 
the  magic  influence  of  the  sacraments.  In  his  endeavor 
to  meet  this  situation  the  writer  of  the  Gospel  of  John 
took  up  and  elaborated  Paul's  idea  of  Jesus  as  the  World- 
Soul.  This  he  expressed  by  the  term  Logos,  or  Word — 
a  term  that  had  played  a  great  r61e  in  Greek  thought 
from  Heraclitus2  down,  and  had  also  been  prominent 
in  Hebrew  thought.  Philo3  had  made  considerable  use 
of  it.  Gnostic  thought  was  squarely  met  by  the  state- 
ment that  the  Word  was  God,4  and  that  the  Word 
became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.  This  conception  of 

1  Cf.  Barton,  The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message,  pp.  41-50. 

2  See  above,  sec.  185. 

3  See  above,  sec.  95. 

« John  1:1.  A  more  accurate  translation  of  the  Greek  would  be, 
"  the  Word  was  divine."  It  means  that  the  Word  belonged  to  the  same 
order  of  being  as  God,  not  that  he  was  identical  with  God. 


CHRISTIANITY  319 

Jesus  as'the  Word  underlies  the  whole  portrait  of  Jesus 
in  this  Gospel,  although  the  term  "Word"  does  not 
occur  after  the  preface.  Jesus  is  portrayed  throughout 
as  superhuman.  His  temptation  is  omitted.  The 
dovelike  descent  of  the  Spirit  occurred  for  the  benefit  of 
John  the  Baptist.1  Jesus  knew  what  was  in  man;2  at 
the  grave  of  Lazarus  he  gave  thanks  to  the  Father,  not 
to  meet  any  need  in  himself,  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
people.3  Jesus  is  represented  as  proclaiming  his  mes- 
siahship  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  to  a  perfect 
stranger,4  and  as  debating  it  publicly  with  the  Jews  on 
many  occasions. 

In  thus  portraying  Jesus  the  fundamental  conception 
of  Gnosticism  was  combated,  and  his  discourses  with 
the  Jews  were  made  the  vehicle  of  combating  the  leaders 
of  that  religion.  John  the  Baptist  was  made  to  bear 
witness  to  the  superiority  of  Jesus  and  the  conquering 
power  of  Christianity,5  while,  to  meet  the  overemphasis 
on  the  Eucharist,  all  record  that  Jesus  established  such 
a  rite  was  omitted.  Instead  of  it  the  account  of  Jesus 
washing  the  disciples'  feet  was  introduced  in  chapter  13, 
while  in  chapter  6,  in  a  discourse  on  eating  his  flesh  and 
drinking  his  blood,  Jesus,  we  are  told,  declared  that  the 
flesh  is  of  no  profit,  but  that  his  words  are  spirit  and  life.6 

In  the  Gospel  the  thesis  is  set  forth  that  Christ  is 
Jesus,  and  that  the  disciples  may  be  one  with  him  and 
with  God.  They  are  to  be  sent  into  the  world  as  Christ 
was  sent  into  the  world.7  In  the  First  Epistle  of  John, 

1  John  i : 33.  *  John  1:15;  3 : 27-30. 

*  John  2:25.  *  John  6 : 63. 

» John  11:42.  J  John  17:18. 
«John  1:48!. 


320  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  which  his  thesis  is  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  union 
of  the  believer  with  Christ  is  powerfully  set  forth.  This 
writer  gave  Christianity  its  three  best  definitions  of  God, 
the  metaphysical,  the  moral,  and  the  religious.  They 
are:  "God  is  spirit";1  "God  is  light "f  and  "God  is 
love."' 

220.  Christianity  in  the  second  century  was  influenced 
by  its  conflict  with  Gnosticism  and  its  contact  with 
Greek  culture.  In  this  conflict  it  developed  its  episcopal 
form  of  government,  its  tendency  to  rely  upon  written 
creeds,  and  it  placed  the  New  Testament  books  on  a 
par  with  those  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  also  developed 
some  writers  of  wide  breadth  of  vision  and  culture,  whose 
views  of  Christianity  exhibit  great  philosophic  insight. 
There  were  also  reactions  against  these  developments. 

(i)  Gnosticism  manifested  itself  in  many  sects  in  a 
great  variety  of  forms.  As  Docetism  it  reduced  all  the 
facts  in  the  life  of  Christ  to  illusions.  In  antagonizing 
it  Ignatius  of  Antioch  (112-115  A-D0  proposed  the 
monarchic  episcopate  as  the  government  of  the  church — 
a  view  that  ultimately  prevailed.  Valentinus,  Basilides, 
and  Marcion,  though  they  differed  radically  from  one 
another  in  doctrine,  referred  to  alleged  apostolic  writings 
in  proof  of  their  views.  Marcion  made  a  canon  consist- 
ing of  one  gospel  and  ten  epistles.  By  silent  processes 
which  we  cannot  now  trace,  a  list  of  New  Testament 
books  was  agreed  upon  by  170  A.D.,  as  the  Canon  of 
Muratori4  bears  witness.  In  combating  Marcion  the 
church  at  Rome  adopted  a  baptismal  formula  about 

1  John  4: 24.  'I  John  1 15.  » I  John  4:8,  16. 

*  See  B.  W.  Bacon,  An  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament  (New  York, 
1000),  pp.  50  ff. 


CHRISTIANITY  321 

150  A.D.,  which  afterward  grew  into  the  symbol  now 
called  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

(2)  The  best  fruits  of  the  combination  of  Christianity 
and  Greek  culture  appear  in  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus 
and  the  writings  of  Clement  of  Alexandria.    These  men 
recognized  that  God  had  not  made  the  Hebrew  people 
his  only  channel  of  revelation;  that  Greek  philosophy 
was  also  a  vehicle  by  which  his  truth  was  transmitted. 
Clement  held  that  God  is  immanent  in  his  world;  that 
man  is  akin  to  God;    that  sin  has  marred  the  divine 
image  in  man,  but  has  not  effaced  it;    that  God  has 
always  been  educating  man;  that  Christ  came  to  com- 
plete the  education  by  revealing  clearly  to  man's  con- 
sciousness the  God  who  has  always  been  here. 

(3)  Certain  Jewish  elements  of  Christianity  with- 
stood all  this  advance  and  gradually  separated  from  the 
church.     Such  were  the  Ebionites,  the  Nazarenes,  and 
the    Elkasites.    They    maintained    that    Christianity 
should  be  simply  a  reformed  Judaism.     Paul  was  the 
object  of  their  especial  dislike,  and  in  the  so-called 
Clementine  Homilies,  Recognitions,  and  Epitome  Paul 
is    roundly    denounced    under    the    name    of    Simon 
Magus. 

221.  The  Eastern  church  and  the  councils. — While 
the  church  rejected  Gnosticism,  it  was  profoundly 
affected  by  it.  The  idea  that  matter  is  inherently  evil 
gradually  permeated  Eastern  Christendom.  As  early  as 
200  A.D.  it  began  to  drive  men  to  the  desert.  Marriage 
was  an  indulgence  of  the  flesh;  life's  ordinary  occupa- 
tions were  a  snare  to  the  soul.  The  common  life  of  man 
was,  they  thought,  beyond  redemption.  They  would 
be  free;  they  would  save  themselves  from  the  wreck  of 


322  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  world.  Little  by  little  the  number  of  anchorites 
increased.  They  were  gradually  organized  into  mon- 
asteries. 

The  Eastern  church  was  fond  of  definitions;  it  cast 
its  faith  in  the  terms  of  thought.  During  the  third 
century  two  great  schools  of  Christian  thought  and 
learning  developed — one  at  Antioch  and  one  at  Alex- 
andria. At  Antioch  they  taught  that  God  dwells  apart 
from  his  world;  at  Alexandria,  that  he  interpenetrates  it. 
At  Antioch  they  held  that  the  Son  was  created  by  the 
Father,  not  begotten  of  him;  that  he  is  not  of  the  same 
substance  as  the  Father,  but  only  of  like  substance. 
About  318  A.D.  Arius,  a  disciple  of  the  school  of  Antioch, 
began  to  teach  in  Alexandria.  His  teachings  seemed 
heretical  to  the  Alexandrian  Christians,  and  he  was 
deposed.  Immediately  all  the  East  was  aflame. 

Constantine,  who  had  become  nominally  Christian 
in  312  A.D. ,  without,  perhaps,  clearly  understanding  the 
difference  between  Christ  and  Mithra,  became  sole 
master  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  324.  He  desired  to 
employ  the  church  to  bind  together  his  empire,  but 
found  it  rent  by  the  Arian  controversy.  He  accordingly 
summoned  in  325  A.D.  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  the  first  of 
the  ecumenical  councils.  To  it  came  bishops  and  others 
from  many  parts  of  the  church,  and  after  long  deliberations 
it  adopted  the  Nicene  definition  of  the  nature  of  the  Son, 
declaring  that  he  is  of  one  substance  with  the  Father. 
Although  the  Alexandrian  view  prevailed  in  the  council, 
much  of  the  church  was  Arian,  and  the  controversy  raged 
for  fifty  years.  When  it  had  about  spent  itself,  Theodo- 
sius  I  called  the  First  Council  of  Constantinople  in 
381  A.D.  It  reaffirmed  the  Nicene  declaration  as  to 


CHRISTIANITY  323 

the  Son's  nature,  and  declared  that  the  Holy  Spirit  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Father. 

Early  in  the  next  century  another  controversy  arose 
between  the  school  of  Antioch  and  that  of  Alexandria. 
The  Antiochians  held  that  Christ  had  two  natures,  a 
divine  and  a  human;  the  Alexandrians,  that,  after 
the  incarnation,  the  two  natures  became  one  divine 
nature.  These  last  delighted  to  call  Mary  the  Mother 
of  God.  The  third  ecumenical  council,  called  by 
Theodosius  II,  met  at  Ephesus  in  433  A.D.  to  settle  this 
matter,  but  the  difference  of  opinion  ran  so  high  that 
the  council  separated  into  two,  each  of  which  condemned 
the  other.  The  Council  of  Chalcedon,  in  451  A.D., 
sought  to  solve  the  difficulty  by  declaring  that  he 
possesses  two  natures,  which,  unmixed,  unconverted, 
undivided,  were  combined  into  one  person,  but  its 
definition  satisfied  neither  of  the  extremes.  The  Mono- 
physites,  who  believed  in  one  nature,  separated  from 
the  church.  These  form  the  Egyptian  (or  Coptic), 
the  Abyssinian,  and  the  Armenian  churches  to  the 
present  time.  The  radical  Dyophysites,  who  believed 
in  two  natures,  also  separated  and  formed  what  is 
known  as  the  Nestorian  church.  For  some  centuries 
they  flourished,  spreading  eastward  to  Turkestan  and 
China,  but  have  now  dwindled  to  a  small  remnant  in 
Persia. 

The  main  body  of  the  Eastern  church  accepted  the 
decree  of  Chalcedon  and  kept  on  its  way.  In  553  A.D. 
in  the  reign  of  Justinian  at  the  Second  Council  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  works  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  the 
real  thinker  of  the  Dyophysite  party,  were  condemned. 
The  Third  Council  of  Constantinople  was  held  in 


324  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

680  A.D.,  which,  in  logical  sequence  from  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  declared  that  Christ  had  two  wills.  The  last 
of  the  ecumenical  councils,  the  Second  Council  of  Nicaea, 
in  787  A.D.  sanctioned  the  use  of  pictures  and  images  in 
churches. 

The  act  of  this  last  council  indicates  to  what  extent 
the  church  had  absorbed  the  customs  of  pre-Christian 
heathenism.  Old  gods  were  in  many  places  christened 
as  Christian  saints,  and  their  cults  were  maintained 
under  a  Christian  name.  By  the  year  800  A.D.  the  main 
lines  of  the  Eastern  church  were  fixed. 

222.  The  Western  Church. — From  the  beginning  the 
genius  of  the  West  was  different  from  that  of  the  East. 
The  East  was  given  to  speculation  and  definition,  the 
West  to  organization  and  administration.  In  the  West 
practical  problems  absorbed  men's  minds;  here  the 
doctrines  of  tradition  and  the  church  were  worked  out. 
The  doctrine  of  tradition  had  been  stated  in  substance 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  written  probably  from  Rome 
before  the  end  of  the  first  century.  In  them  the  true 
faith  is  something  committed  to  a  disciple  by  an  apostle, 
which  the  disciple  is  to  guard  and  hand  on  to  others.1 
This  doctrine  was  revived  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century  by  Irenaeus,*  who  held  that  the  true  doctrines 
of  the  church  were  left  by  the  apostles  as  a  "deposit" 
with  the  bishops  whom  they  appointed,  and  that  these 
bishops  had  passed  the  "deposit"  on  to  their  successors, 
withholding  no  part  of  it.  Thus  the  true  "  deposit "  was 
still  to  be  found  in  the  faith  of  the  churches  hi  the  large 
cities,  where  any  deviation  from  apostolic  standards 

'See  I  Tim.  6:20;  II  Tim.  i :  13,  14;  2:2. 
J  Cf.  bis  work  Against  Heresies  iii.  3. 


CHRISTIANITY  325 

would  be  quickly  detected.  This  argument,  he  held, 
applied  with  especial  force  to  the  church  at  Rome,  since 
Rome  was  the  capital  of  the  empire  and  any  variation 
from  the  "deposit"  at  Rome  would  be  detected  more 
quickly  than  elsewhere.  This  argument  concerning 
tradition  was  elaborated  by  Tertullian  of  Carthage,  a 
younger  contemporary  of  Irenaeus,  and  became  the  basis 
of  the  claim  of  Rome  to  the  right  to  rule  the  church. 

Cyprian  of  Carthage  developed  the  doctrine  of  the 
bishopric,  as  Irenaeus  had  that  of  tradition.  He  held 
that  the  bishop  is  the  representative  of  Christ,  -and 
as  such  he  possesses  over  his  congregation  the  same 
authority  that  Christ  has  over  the  church  universal. 
Christ  was  a  priest;  he  offered  himself  in  sacrifice.  The 
bishop  is  a  priest  who  at  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist 
repeats  the  sacrifice  of  his  Lord.  Christ  can  remit  sins; 
hence  his  representative  can  remit  sins.  The  views  of 
Cyprian  ultimately  prevailed  and  transformed  the 
Christian  ministry  into  a  priesthood. 

The  foundations  of  the  theology  of  Latin  Christianity 
were  completed  by  Augustine  of  Hippo  (d.  430  A.D.). 
Augustine's  thought  was  developed  through  three  con- 
troversies, that  with  the  Manichaeans,  that  with  the 
Donatists,  and  that  with  the  Pelagians.  The  Mani- 
chaeans denied  that  the  church  is  the  sole  depositary  of 
the  truth;  the  Donatists,  that  the  church  has  a  right  to 
rule  the  conscience;  the  Pelagians,  that  human  nature 
needs  such  a  church  as  the  Western  Fathers  believed  in. 
In  the  course  of  these  controversies  Augustine  set  forth 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  holding  that  man  has  been 
completely  separated  from  God.  It  was  this  that  gave 
the  church  its  reason  for  existence.  The  divine  image 


326  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

can,  he  taught,  be  renewed  in  man  only  by  the  rite 
of  baptism;  in  the  act  of  baptism  regeneration  occurs, 
if  it  can  occur  at  all.  Christ  had  come  to  establish 
the  church,  and  had  gone  away  again  to  the  distant 
heavens,  leaving  the  church  to  rule.  There  was  no 
salvation  outside  her,  but  not  all  within  her  will  be 
saved,  for  salvation  depends  upon  the  will  of  God  and 
is  granted  only  to  the  elect.  This  was  the  form  of 
Christian  thought  which  ruled  Western  Europe  for  a 
thousand  years. 

The  personal  piety  of  Augustine  reflected  in  his 
"Confessions,"  the  greatest  religious  autobiography  ever 
written,  is  wonderfully  attractive. 

223.  The  early  Middle  Ages  formed  a  period  of 
increasing  ignorance.  The  coming  of  the  barbarians 
gradually  submerged  the  finer  characteristics  of  the 
earlier  time.  In  a  rude  way  these  barbarians  were 
gradually  Christianized,  though  many  of  their  old  beliefs 
and  customs  were  continued  under  Christian  names. 
By  800  A.D.  the  pope  at  Rome  was  able  to  assert  his 
authority  over  the  civil  power,  and  the  church  became 
hi  name  at  least  supreme.  With  the  decline  of  culture 
crude  doctrines  sprang  up.  One  of  these  was  the 
doctrine  of  purgatory.  Until  this  time  the  almost 
universal  belief  of  antiquity,  that  the  dead  reside  in  a 
subterranean  cavity,  still  prevailed.  To  this  had  been 
added  the  Jewish-Christian  faith  that  before  the  Judg- 
ment Day  the  dead  will  be  raised.  Little  by  little  it  had 
come  to  be  held  that  this  period  of  waiting  would  be 
occupied  with  expiatory  sufferings,  and  that  whether 
these  sufferings  were  to  be  long  or  short  depended  upon 
the  will  of  the  priesthood. 


CHRISTIANITY  327 

Another  doctrine  that  emerged  in  this  period  was 
that  of  trans-substantiation — the  doctrine  that  at  the 
consecration  of  the  elements  of  the  Eucharist  the  bread 
and  wine  are  miraculously  transmuted  into  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ.  Alchemists  at  the  time  believed 
that  lead  could  be  transmuted  into  gold,  it  one  could 
only  find  the  secret,  and  theology  traveled  in  the  same 
path. 

224.  The  later  Middle  Ages  began  with  the  eleventh 
century.  The  second  migration  of  the  barbarians  (the 
later  Huns,  Northmen,  Danes,  and  Saracens)  had 
caused  extended  suffering.  This  suffering,  together 
with  the  widespread  expectation  that  the  end  of  the 
world  would  occur  in  the  year  1000,  sobered  and  deepened 
the  life  of  Europe.  After  the  year  1000  it  was  a  more 
religious  world;  its  happy,  thoughtless  childhood  had 
passed.  Gothic  cathedrals  began  to  express  the  aspira- 
tions and  longings  of  the  age. 

It  soon  became  an  age  of  intellectual  activity.  The 
leaders  of  this  activity  were  the  "schoolmen,"  who 
occupied  themselves  in  justifying  to  the  intellect  the 
dogmas  of  the  church.  Anselm  (1038-1109  A.D.),  the 
first  and  greatest  of  the  schoolmen,  gave  to  the  church 
its  first  worthy  doctrine  of  the  atonement.  It  had  been 
held  from  the  beginning  that  the  death  of  Christ  some- 
how accomplished  the  salvation  of  men,  but  how  it 
accomplished  this  had  not  been  definitely  explained. 
Some  had  taken  Christ's  figure  of  a  ransom1  literally,  and 
held  that  God  gave  his  Son  to  Satan  in  order  to  redeem 
men  from  his  grasp.  Anselm  changed  all  this.  He 
explained  the  death  of  Christ  on  the  analogy  of  feudal 

'Matt.  20:28. 


328  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

law.  Man  owed  God  a  fealty  which  he  had  failed  to 
pay;  the  debt  was  infinite  because  God  is  infinite. 
Man  could  not  pay  the  debt  because  he  is  finite.  He 
was  accordingly  doomed  to  endless  woe.  But  if  man 
perished,  God's  love  would  be  thwarted.  The  infinite 
Son  of  God  accordingly  became  man,  in  order  to  die  and 
satisfy  God's  honor.  According  to  this  view  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  was  a  sacrifice  of  God's  love  to  God's  justice. 

Not  all  schoolmen  were  so  considerate  of  the  Latin 
church.  Abelard  was  led  to  hold  many  of  the  views  of 
the  Greek  theology,  and  became  a  martyr  for  his 
independence.  With  the  dawning  of  new  intelligence 
several  sects  sprang  into  existence,  the  adherents  of 
which  sought  greater  satisfaction  for  the  soul  than  the 
church  afforded.  The  church  took  alarm  and  in  1229 
closed  the  Bible  to  the  laity,  and  in  1232  invented  the 
inquisition  to  enforce  the  decision.  Thomas  Aquinas 
(1227-74)  propounded  a  little  later  the  doctrine  of 
two  kingdoms,  the  kingdom  of  nature  and  the  kingdom 
of  grace,  which  for  a  time  gave  the  church  an  intellectual 
triumph  also.  According  to  this  view  nature  is  a  kind 
of  hierarchy,  rising  through  the  lower  orders  of  life  to 
its  culmination  in  man.  Rising  above  this  is  the  king- 
dom of  grace,  which  has  its  outward  embodiment  in  the 
church,  and  is  continued  by  the  angels  in  heaven.  It 
culminates  hi  the  throne  of  God.  In  the  kingdom  of 
nature  the  thought  of  man  was  said  to  be  free  to  act;  in 
the  kingdom  of  grace  man  must  accept  what  God  reveals. 

These  measures  and  doctrines  were  not,  however, 
permanently  successful.  In  the  fourteenth  century 
Wycliffe  (1324-84)  translated  the  Bible  into  the  ver- 
nacular for  the  people  and  preached  an  evangelical 


CHRISTIANITY  329 

doctrine.  In  Germany  in  the  same  century  Eckhardt 
(d.  1329),  Tauler  (d.  1361),  and  Thomas  a  Kempis 
(1380-1471),  while  they  remained  in  the  church,  taught 
the  possibility  of  a  direct  union  with  God,  a  view  which 
was  contrary  to  what  had  come  to  be  regarded  as 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  church.  John  Huss  in 
Bohemia,  an  evangelical  preacher  of  the  same  type  as 
Wycliffe,  held  to  liberty  of  conscience,  and  died  a 
martyr's  death  in  1415.  After  the  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople by  the  Turks  in  1453  many  Christians  from 
the  East  fled  to  Italy.  They  brought  with  them  the 
Greek  Testament  and  a  knowledge  of  classical  learning, 
which  created  such  a  ferment  that  a  new  type  of  Chris- 
tianity was  created. 

225.  The  Reformation  was  a  declaration  of  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  conscience,  and  a  shift  of  the 
basis  of  authority  from  the  church  to  the  Bible.  While 
it  presented  great  varieties  of  form,  the  forms  which 
attracted  most  adherents  did  not  differ  radically  from 
the  Catholics  as  to  the  transcendence  of  God,  the 
depravity  of  man,  and  a  standard  of  authority  external 
to  the  conscience.  Luther  (1483-1546),  the  first  pro- 
tagonist of  the  Reformation,  made  much  of  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith.  He  was  not  a  consistent 
theologian.  His  system  retained  many  features  and 
conceptions  of  the  church,  while  departing  from  it  in 
other  respects.  Zwingli  (1484-1531)  departed  more 
widely  from  the  Latin  church  in  thought.  He  revived 
from  another  point  of  view  Augustine's  doctrine  of 
election.  John  Calvin  (1509-64)  formed  the  most  com- 
plete system  of  theology,  giving  to  Protestantism  its 
fighting  armor.  To  him  as  to  Augustine  God  waa  an 


330  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

absent  sovereign.  He  differed  from  Augustine  in  finding 
the  will  of  God  expressed  in  the  Bible  rather  than  in  the 
church.  Menno,  Schwenkfeld,  Arminius,  and  others 
took  positions  that  departed  in  many  respects  more 
widely  than  those  of  Luther  and  Calvin  from  the  posi- 
tions previously  occupied  by  the  church.  Many  founded 
sects  or  parties  in  Protestantism  which  continue  to  the 
present  day.  The  period  of  the  Reformation  was  the 
period  of  expanding  knowledge,  when  our  modern  world 
was  born.  The  religious  impulse  of  the  Reformation 
lasted  through  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
It  produced  many  types  of  thought  and  of  Christian 
organization,  varying  from  the  Anglican  church,  which 
retains  the  Episcopal  organization,  but  discards  five  of 
the  Roman  sacraments,  to  that  of  the  Friends  or  followers 
of  George  Fox  (d.  1690),  who  dispensed  both  with  an 
ordained  ministry  and  with  all  outward  sacraments. 
The  most  widely  accepted  theology  was,  however,  that 
of  John  Calvin,  in  which  man  is  regarded  as  a  totally 
depraved  being,  whose  sins  were  vicariously  borne  by 
Christ.  Christ,  however,  did  not,  according  to  Calvin; 
redeem  all  of  humanity,  but  the  elect  alone. 

In  countries  where  the  Reformation  gained  sufficient 
power,  as  in  England  and  Scotland,  a  state  church  was 
substituted  for  the  Roman  church. 

2->6.  The  eighteenth  century  was  one  of  religious 
reaction.  This  was  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  Reformation  had  spent  itself,  and  in 
part  to  the  trend  given  to  philosophy  by  John  Locke. 
According  to  this  philosophy  everything  was  to  be 
tested  by  the  understanding,  and  the  effort  to  make 
religion  not  mysterious  reduced  it  at  times  to  a  cold 


CHRISTIANITY  331 

intellectual  system.  This  century  saw,  nevertheless, 
the  evangelical  revival  inaugurated  by  John  Wesley. 
This  revival  stood  quite  apart  from  the  thought  of  the 
century  in  which  it  occurred.  The  philosophy  of  the 
time  thought  of  God  as  far  away;  those  who  partici- 
pated in  the  Methodist  revival  held  that  he  is  near  and 
that  everyone  can  approach  him. 

227.  The  nineteenth  century  was  hi  many  ways  the 
most  remarkable  century  since  the  first  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  Intellectually  Christianity  had  to  find 
itself  hi  the  midst  of  new  systems  of  thought.  The 
philosophies  of  Kant  and  Hegel  were  especially  influ- 
ential with  Christian  thinkers.  Never  in  the  history  of 
man  had  scientific  knowledge  been  so  rapidly  acquired. 
Nearly  all  our  sciences  were  born  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  along  with  new  explanations  of  Christian 
theory,  and  in  spite  of  doubts  raised  by  new  knowledge, 
Christian  life  had  never  been  more  intense  or  more  vital. 
With  an  enthusiasm  unknown  since  the  Apostolic  Age, 
efforts  were  undertaken  to  convert  the  world  to  Christ, 
and  were  successfully  prosecuted.  Though  modern 
methods  of  studying  history  were  applied  to  the  Bible 
itself — methods  which  revealed  its  history  in  aspects 
hitherto  unsuspected — though  the  basis  of  faith  was 
shown  to  be  wider  than  was  formerly  thought,  the 
adjustment  was  made  in  many  quarters,  and  Christ 
appeared  to  his  followers  secure  as  Master  in  the  realm 
of  religion. 

In  parts  of  Protestantism,  but  especially  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  there  have  been  reactions.  One  of 
these  led  to  the  proclamation  in  1870  of  the  dogma  of 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  This  was  but  natural. 


332  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  Roman  church  stands  for  the  mediaeval  form  of 
Christianity  and  is  bound  to  carry  to  a  logical  conclu- 
sion the  principles  that  were  formulated  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

228.  Modern  Christian  thought  hi  Protestantism  is 
still  endeavoring  to  adjust  itself  to  the  new  intellectual 
universe  called  into  being  by  modern  science.  The 
adjustment  is  not  fully  accomplished  and  there  is,  con- 
sequently, much  variety.  Certain  tendencies  may  be 
noted.  God  is  now  conceived  as  the  Infinite  Soul  of  a 
universe  that  surpasses  the  limits  of  human  imagination. 
He  is  still  denned  as  Spirit,  Light,  and  Love.  He 
dwells,  not  apart  from  the  universe,  but  interpenetrates 
it.  Man  has  "felt  after"  God  in  all  the  religions  of  the 
world.  God  has  been  manifest  in  the  religious  experi- 
ence of  all  peoples.  The  great  religious  teachers,  Amos, 
Hosea,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Zoroaster,  Gautama,  Lao-tze, 
Confucius,  Socrates,  Plato,  Mohammed,  have  each  in 
their  degree  grasped  more  than  their  fellows  of  truth 
about  God  or  life,  and  have  helped  men  to  larger  knowl- 
edge or  larger  experience  of  God,  or  to  both.  Jesus  is 
the  greatest  of  all  teachers.  He  knew 'so  much  more 
of  God  and  truth  and  the  soul  than  they  that  he  stands 
supreme  in  the  religious  sphere.  None  has  revealed 
God  as  he  did.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
is  seen  by  many  to  stand  for  a  truth,  the  eternally  social 
nature  of  God — that  nature  which  makes  it  possible  for 
God  to  be  eternally  knowing  and  eternally  loving.  It  is 
in  this  fundamentally  social  nature  of  God  that  there  is 
found  a  basis  of  faith  for  the  realization  of  the  social 
aspirations  of  man  for  a  perfect  social  state — the 
Kingdom  of  God. 


CHRISTIANITY  333 

For  a  time  the  doctrine  of  evolution  seemed  to 
destroy  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man  into  sin. 
It  now  appears  that  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  and 
the  stories  of  a  Golden  Age  are  human  recollections  of 
the  way  the  world  of  man's  innocence  seemed  to  him  to 
be  destroyed,  when  his  brain  had  developed  to  such  a 
degree  that  he  could  imagine  how  his  acts  affected 
others,  and  conscience  was  born.  It  was  then  that  sin 
began.  The  suffering  of  the  good  for  the  bad,  espe- 
cially the  suffering  of  the  Christ,  is  thought  to  be  the 
divinely  appointed  means  of  awakening,  in  accordance 
with  psychological  laws,  the  spirit  of  man  to  recognize 
his  sin,  the  goodness  of  God,  and  his  own  possibilities. 
Righteousness  is  conceived  to  be  the  highest  ethical  life 
lived  hi  companionship  with  God  by  one  who  is  doing 
God's  will  in  the  world — who  is  seeking  to  establish 
God's  Kingdom  of  peace  and  righteousness.  Such  a 
religion  has  in  it  the  capabilities  of  satisfying  the 
aspirations  of  the  most  cultured,  and  of  becoming 
universal. 

229.  Summary. — There  are  three  main  divisions  of 
Christendom :  the  Eastern  churches,  the  Roman  church, 
and  Protestantism.  The  Eastern  churches  crystallized 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  have  since 
contributed  little  to  Christian  progress.  The  Roman 
church  crystallized  at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
adjusts  itself  to  modern  progress  with  the  greatest 
difficulty.  Protestantism  presents  the  greatest  variety. 
Some  sections  of  it  have  not  passed  beyond  the  semi- 
mediaeval  point  of  view  of  the  early  Reformers,  while 
other  sections  of  it  have  welcomed  the  new  knowledge 
and  in  its  light  see  light.  To  these  last  the  great  religious 


334  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

truths   seem   more   beautiful   and   more   fundamental 
than  ever. 

Of  all  the  religions  we  have  studied  three  aim  at 
universality — Mohammedanism,  Buddhism,  and  Chris- 
tianity. Without  disparaging  or  underestimating  either 
of  the  others,  it  must  be  said  that  in  spite  of  all  the 
un-Christian  things  that  have  marred  its  history,  and 
its  failure  to  realize  its  ideals  in  life,  the  best  hope  of  the 
world  lies  in  the  possibility  that  Christianity  may  come 
to  have  universal  influence.  This  is  because  the 
Christian  conception  of  God  is  capable  of  becoming 
adequate  to  the  needs  of  man's  expanding  knowledge 
of  the  universe,  while  it  satisfies  the  highest  personal 
and  social  aspirations  of  man;  it  is  also  because  the 
ethical  standards  of  Jesus,  combined  with  the  Christian 
conception  of  God,  afford  the  best  basis  for  a  universal 
brotherhood;  and  also  because  it  was  the  aim  of  Jesus 
to  make  the  whole  world  such  a  brotherhood — one 
family. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

CLASS  A 

On  sec.  199:    Cf.  Burton  and  Mathews,   The  Life    of   Christ 

(Chicago,  1901). 
On  sec.  200:    B.  W.  Robinson,  The  Life  of  Paul  (Chicago,  in 

preparation). 
On  sees.  201-210:    G.  B.  Smith,  editor,  A  Guide  to  the  Study  of 

the  Christian  Religion  (Chicago,  1916). 
On  sec.  21 1 :    G.  A.  Barton,  The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message, 

2d  ed.  (New  York,  1912),  chap.  viii. 

CLASS  B 

G.  A.  Barton,  The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message,  2d  ed.  (New 
York,  1912). 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  IN  THE 
RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

230.  God  revealing  himself. — There  are  people  to 
whom  home  never  appears  at  its  real  value  until  they 
have  traveled  abroad.  In  religious  matters  we  are  all 
somewhat  provincial.  We  come  back,  if  we  are  wise, 
from  a  world-wide  survey  of  religion  with  a  new  appre- 
ciation of  the  "depths  of  the  riches"  of  our  Christian 
faith.  One  cannot,  as  our  ancestors  used  to  do,  regard 
the  non-Christian  religions  as  works  of  the  devil.  If 
God  is  good  he  has  been  seeking  to  impart  to  all  men  a 
knowledge  of  himself  ever  since  man  was  man.  Just 
as  the  success  of  a  teacher  depends  in  part  upon  the 
degree  of  mental  ability  possessed  by  his  pupils,  so 
the  success  of  the  Great  Teacher  has  depended  upon  the 
mental,  ethical,  and  spiritual  powers  of  the  races  of  men. 
In  the  process  of  the  evolution  of  the  human  race  these 
powers  have  unfolded  gradually.  They  have  varied 
with  climate,  environment,  and  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion. Viewed  from  the  human  side  we  may  rightly 
speak  of  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of  God.  Viewed 
from  the  divine  side  we  may  speak  of  the  progress  of 
revelation.  The  two  ways  of  speaking  are  not  contradic- 
tory. He  who  speaks  from  the  human  standpoint  does 
not  necessarily  deny  the  theological  standpoint;  he 
who  speaks  from  the  theological,  does  not,  if  wise,  deny 
the  human  facts.  In  reality,  what  man  discovers  is 

335 


336  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

identical  with  what  God  reveals.  Always  God  would 
reveal  more  if  human  weakness  and  ignorance  could 
grasp  it. 

The  study  of  the  religions  of  the  world  is,  then,  a 
study  of  the  processes  by  which  God  has  revealed  himself. 
It  may  be  wise  before  laying  aside  our  study  to  recapitu- 
late some  of  the  facts  of  the  process  of  this  revelation  or 
evolution  and  to  attempt  to  classify  them.  It  will  help 
us  to  a  new  appreciation  of  Christianity. 

In  every  study  of  this  kind  it  is  necessary  to  guard 
against  a  pit  into  which  many  crude  thinkers  fall.  We 
must  not  make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  because 
we  can  trace  an  idea  or  an  institution  to  a  humble 
origin  we  have  thereby  discredited  it.  Not  its  origin, 
but  the  present  truth  and  function  of  an  idea,  are 
the  test  of  its  value.  Science  leads  us  to  believe  that 
man  was  created  by  evolution  from  a  lower  order  of  life. 
At  first  this  seemed  to  degrade  man,  but  in  reality  it 
has  done  nothing  of  the  sort.  Whatever  his  origin, 
man,  with  all  his  powers  and  possibilities,  is  what  he  is. 
In  reality  the  scientific  view  has  placed  man  in  a  new 
position  of  honor  and  dignity.  Similarly  it  seems  to 
some  that  to  know  that  Yahweh  was  once  the  tribal 
god  of  an  obscure  Semitic  tribe,  hardly  distinguishable 
from  any  other  Semitic  deity  of  that  time,  forever  dis- 
credits "supernatural"  religion.  In  reality  it  only  helps 
us  to  disentangle  from  the  conceptions  that  have  come 
down  to  us  that  which  is  "of  the  earth  earthy,"  and  to 
help  that  which  is  really  supernatural  to  stand  out  in 
all  its  beauty  and  power. 

231.  Primitive  conceptions  of  God. — Savage  men — 
and  all  men  were  once  savages — have  no  unified  con- 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       337 

ception  of  the  world  of  spirits.  Each  one  of  them  is 
conscious  that  he  has  a  spirit,  and  he  supposes  that  every 
bush,  crag,  rock,  hill,  mountain,  stream,  star,  as  well 
as  the  sun,  moon,  and  wind,  have  similar  spirits.  These 
are  believed  to  be  more  powerful  than  man — they  can 
help  him  in  time  of  need,  if  they  will — but  no  one  of  them 
is  omnipotent.  Man  attributes  to  these  all  his  own 
passions.  They  are  jealous,  bloodthirsty,  revengeful, 
quarrelsome,  and  savage.  The  words  of  Genesis  tell  us 
that  "God  made  man  in  his  own  image";  all  savage 
men  make  their  gods  hi  their  own  image.  It  is  this  that 
gives  to  the  savage  religions  their  revolting  cruelty 
and  in  some  instances  bestiality.  It  has  sometimes 
happened  that  primitive  savage  notions  of  the  gods 
survive  into  periods  of  high  culture.  Many  are  familiar 
with  the  ethics  fostered  by  the  primitive  Semitic  mother- 
goddess,1  and  how  they  survived  far  down  into  historical 
times  in  all  the  Semitic  nations  of  antiquity.  Every 
reader  of  the  Old  Testament  remembers  how  strenu- 
ously the  Hebrew  prophets  were  compelled  to  denounce 
the  abominations  of  Ashtoreth.  One  marvels  as  he 
looks  back  that  they  succeeded  in  leading  the  people 
to  firm  faith  in  a  God  of  purer  ethics.  A  similar  instance 
of  savage  survival  is  found  in  the  case  of  the  Vedic  god 
Indra.  The  Hindus  of  the  Vedic  period  were  exceed- 
ingly fond  of  intoxicating  Soma.  Under  its  influence 
they  forgot  the  painful  past  and  the  hard  present. 
They  felt  that  they  were  themselves  gods.  In  time 
Soma  was  worshiped  as  a  god.  He  was  thought  to  give 
the  other  gods  their  immortality.  Just  as  he  exalted 
the  spirits  of  men,  so  he  did  the  spirits  of  gods.  Thus 

'See  supra,  pp.  9  and  61-67. 


338  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

it  comes  about  that  hymn  119  of  Book  X  of  the  Rig- 
Veda  is,  as  generally  understood,  an  utterance  of  the 
god  Indra  when  intoxicated  I1  Indra  was  the  blusterer 
among  their  gods,  but  here  he  outdoes  himself.  He  has 
all  the  exaltation  and  loquacity  of  the  drunkard  at  a 
certain  point  of  his  exaltation.  It  is  the  earliest  known 
attempt  in  literature  to  embalm  in  immortal  verse  the 
boastful  babblings  of  a  drunkard — and  all  this  is  told 
of  a  god  of  the  famed  and  vaunted  Veda! 

Savage  kings  sometimes  in  their  successes  exalted 
themselves  not  only  over  men  but  over  the  gods.  A 
classic  instance  of  this,  already  noted  in  chapter  iii,  is 
found  hi  the  oldest  religious  text  that  has  come  down 
to  us  from  Egypt.  The  text  was  inscribed  on  the  walls 
of  the  tomb  of  Unis,  the  last  king  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty, 
who  ruled  about  2655-2625  B.C.  One  will  recognize 
in  the  following  quotation  a  number  of  savage  and  even 
cannibalistic  traits,  in  addition  to  some  peculiar  concep- 
tions of  the  relation  of  a  man  to  his  gods: 

King  Unis  is  the  one  who  eats  men  and  lives  on  gods, 

Lord  of  the  messengers,  who  dispatches  his  messages; 

It  is  the  "  Grasper-of -Forelocks  "  living  in  Kehew 

Who  binds  them  for  king  Unis. 

It  is  the  serpent  "Splendid  Head" 

Who  watches  them  for  him  and  repels  them  for  him. 

It  is  "He-who-is-upon-the-Willows" 

Who  lassoes  them  for  him. 

It  is  "Punisher-of -all-Evil-doers" 

Who  stabs  them  for  king  Unis. 

He  takes  out  for  him  their  entrails, 

He  is  the  messenger  whom  he  (king  Unis)  sends  to  punish. 

Shemsu  cuts  them  up  for  king  Unis 

1  See  supra,  p.  145. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       339 

And  cooks  for  him  a  portion  of  them 
As  his  evening  meal. 


He  has  taken  the  hearts  of  the  gods; 

He  has  eaten  the  Red, 

He  has  swallowed  the  Green. 

King  Unis  is  nourished  on  satisfied  organs, 

He  is  satisfied,  living  on  their  hearts  and  their  charms. 

Their  charms  are  in  his  belly. 

The  dignities  of  king  Unis  are  not  taken  away  from  him ; 

He  hath  swallowed  the  knowledge  of  every  god. 

Lo  their  (the  gods')  soul  is  in  the  belly  of  king  Unis, 

Their  glorious  ones  are  with  king  Unis. 

The  plenty  of  his  portion  is  more  than  that  of  the  gods. 

Lo  their  soul  is  with  king  Unis.1 

When  a  king  is  superior  to  the  gods,  can  send  his 
messengers  to  capture  them,  can  have  his  attendants 
cut  them  up  and  cook  them  for  his  evening  meal,  and 
thus  by  a  kind  of  cannibalistic2  communion  store  away 
hi  his  person  their  superior  charms  as  an  addition  to  his 
own,  it  is  clear  that  the  conception  of  the  gods  held  by 
his  people  is  not  very  exalted.  Faith  hi  such  gods  can 
give  birth  to  no  lofty  religion.  If  noble  ethics  develop 
among  such  a  people,  as  actually  happened  in  ancient 
Egypt,  they  develop  hi  spite  of  religion. 

1  From  Breasted,  A  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  pp.  izSff. 

1  Archaeological  evidence  of  Egyptian  cannibalism  has  been  found 
in  Egypt;  cf.  W.  M.  F.  Petrie  and  J.  E.  Quibell,  Naqada  and  Balas 
(London,  1896),  p.  32,  and  Petrie,  Wainwright,  and  Mackay,  The 
Labyrinth,  Girzeh  and  Mazghuneh  (London,  1912),  pp.  8-15.  The 
authors  call  it  a  "ritualistic"  dismemberment,  but  ritualism  had  its 
origin  in  this  case  in  a  reality. 


340  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

This  Egyptian  view  of  the  gods  is  not  unique.  One 
finds  it  everywhere  in  antiquity,  if  one  searches  far 
enough.  Thus  in  the  best  known  of  the  Babylonian 
accounts  of  the  Flood,  in  the  part  that  describes  the 
great  flood-producing  storm,  we  read: 

The  gods  were  frightened  at  the  deluge, 

They  fled,  they  climbed  to  the  highest  heaven; 

The  gods  crouched  like  dogs,  they  lay  down  by  the  walls. 

Fine,  brave  gods  these!  They  were  "touched  with  a 
feeling  of  human  infirmity"  but  were  of  little  use  in  an 
emergency  like  the  deluge.  These  gods  too  were 
dependent  on  men.  While  the  flood  lasted  no  sacri- 
fices were  offered,  and  the  gods  became  hungry.  When 
the  deluge  subsided  and  the  Babylonian  Noah,  once 
more  on  dry  land,  offered  sacrifice  we  read : 

The  gods  smelled  the  savor, 

The  gods  smelled  the  sweet  savor, 

The  gods  about  the  sacrificer  collected  like  flies. 

Among  the  early  Romans  and  Japanese  the  gods 
were  but  vaguely  defined  spirits.  We  would  hardly 
call  them  gods  at  all.  In  the  earliest  Roman  religion 
Jupiter  scarcely  appears  at  all.  Instead  various  spirits 
of  the  household  and  the  farm  were  worshiped.  The 
Genius  of  the  man,  the  Juno  of  the  woman  (the  powers 
of  procreation  and  conception),  Vesta,  the  spirit  of 
the  hearth,  Penes,  the  spirit  of  the  storehouse,  Lares,  the 
spirit  of  the  fields,  together  with  many  spirits  of  the 
flocks,  herds,  grams,  fruits,  etc.,  were  the  objects  of  their 
worship.  Their  personality  was  but  ill  defined.  Vesta 
was  the  hearth  and  more  than  the  hearth;  Penes  was 
the  storehouse  and  more  than  the  storehouse;  and  so 
with  the  others.  This  stern,  practical,  warlike  people, 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       341 

that  afterward  conquered  the  world,  had  little  imagina- 
tion for  the  divine.  It  worshiped  the  spirits  that  were 
supposed  to  aid  in  practical  living,  but  its  conception 
of  these  was  most  vague.1 

The  Japanese,  like  the  Romans,  possess  many  prac- 
tical characteristics.  They  also  resemble  the  Romans 
in  their  vague  conceptions  of  the  divine.  The  Japanese 
language  has  no  real  word  for  God.  The  word  generally 
employed,  Kami,  means  something  wonderful,  awe- 
inspiring.  It  designates  something  between  superman 
and  superhuman  being.  Foxes,  trees,  mountains,  rivers, 
volcanoes,  the  sun,  flowers,  and  fruits  were  all  Kami. 
When,  under  the  stimulus  of  the  Confucian  philosophy, 
the  primitive  beliefs  and  myths  of  Japan  were  shaped 
into  a  loose  system  in  support  of  the  reigning  dynasty, 
a  system  known  as  Shinto,  or  the  way  of  the  gods,  this 
tendency  to  call  everything  wonderful  Kami  and  to 
give  it  a  sort  of  reverence  was  continued.  Notable 
men,  ancestors,  benefactors,  and  heroes  have  been  added 
to  the  list  of  Kami  or  gods. 

These  ancient  conceptions  of  gods  and  spirits  find 
their  parallels,  with  many  variations,  among  the  savages 
of  Africa,  Australasia,  and  Polynesia  today.  From  such 
humble  origins  all  later  conceptions  of  God  have  devel- 
oped. From  such  beginnings  one  can  trace  the  evolu- 
tion of  four  different  types  of  conception  of  deity. 

232.  Pantheism. — The  first  of  these  is  a  kind  of 
philosophic  monism  or  pantheism.  This  developed  in 
the  latest  stratum  of  the  Vedic  literature,  the  Upan- 
ishads,  written  between  800  and  500  B.C.  According 
to  this  view  the  universe  is  composed  of  one  supreme 

1  See  supra,  pp.  266  f . 


342      ;M     THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

impersonal  substance,  variously  called  Atman,  "breath," 
and  Brahma  or  Brahman,  "holy  thought."1  Atman, 
or  breath,  like  the  Semitic  nephesh,  also  meant  "soul" 
or  "self."  This  supreme  impersonal  substance  was  in 
time  conceived  as  the  supreme  self.  Individuals  were 
but  partial  manifestations  of  the  universal  Atman,  just 
as  every  part  of  the  universe  was  also  an  expression 
of  IT.  It  was  a  pantheism  2,500  years  before  Spinoza. 
All  that  is  is  Brahman  or  Atman. 

However  impossible  it  may  seem  that  such  a  view 
could  inspire  ethical  enthusiasm  or  religious  devotion, 
yet  some  passages  of  the  Upanishads  set  forth  the  lofty 
ideal  that  every  act  should  be  performed  for  the  self 
and  gains  its  value  only  as  this  is  done.  Thus  we 
read: 

Verily  a  husband  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  a  husband; 
but  that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  husband  is  dear. 

Verily  a  wife  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  wife;  but 
that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  wife  is  dear. 

Verily  sons  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  sons;  but  that 
you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  sons  are  dear. 

Verily  wealth  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  wealth;  but  that 
you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  wealth  is  dear. 

Verily  cattle  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  cattle;  but 
that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  cattle  are  dear. 


Verily  the  worlds  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  worlds; 
but  that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  worlds  are  dear. 

Verily  the  gods  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  gods;  but 
that  you  should  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  gods  are  dear. 

Verily  the  Vedas  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  the  Vedas; 
but  that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  Vedas  are  dear. 

1  See  supra,  p.  155. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       343 

Verily  creatures  are  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  creatures; 
but  that  you  should  love  the  Self,  therefore  creatures  are  dear. 

Verily  everything  is  not  dear,  that  you  may  love  everything; 
but  that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  everything  is  dear. 

Verily  the  Self  is  to  be  seen,  to  be  heard,  to  be  perceived,  to 
be  marked,  O  Maitreyi!  When  the  Self  has  been  seen,  heard, 
perceived  and  known,  then  all  this  is  known.1 

Much  more  of  a  similar  strain  follows.  It  is  an  expres- 
sion of  a  lofty  philosophico-religious  ideal — to  value 
the  part  for  the  whole,  and  to  love  the  universal  self. 
It  never  led,  however,  to  the  redemption  of  any  great 
part  of  Indian  life.  It  was  too  intangible,  and  it  con- 
tamed  the  seeds  of  pessimism.  According  to  this 
doctrine  man  is  but  an  evanescent  bubble  on  the  surface 
of  the  Infinite  Self.  The  Upanishads  were  introduced 
into  Persia  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
Omar  Khayyam  was  steeped  in  their  philosophy.  Their 
legitimate  fruit  may  be  studied  in  his  charming,  but 
hopeless,  poems.  It  will  be  noted  that,  in  the  passage 
from  the  Upanishads  just  quoted,  the  existence  of  the 
old  gods  is  not  denied.  They  are  taken  for  granted  as 
a  part  of  the  world,  but,  like  men  and  cattle,  are  regarded 
as  partial  expressions  of  the  Infinite  Self. 

233.  Gods  caught  in  the  meshes  of  the  universe.— 
According  to  a  second  evolution  from  the  primitive  type 
of  thought  the  gods  or  spirits  remained  as  they  had 
originally  been  conceived,  and  the  conception  of  the 
universe  was  enlarged  so  that  the  gods,  like  men,  were 
thought  to  be  entangled  in  its  meshes,  and  men  ceased 
to  look  to  the  gods  for  their  salvation.  At  least  five 
systems  of  religious  thought,  two  in  India  and  three  in 
China,  came  into  existence  in  consequence  of  this 

1  The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XV,  182  ff. 


344  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

general  view  of  the  universe  and  the  gods.  In  the 
Indian  systems  the  gods  ceased  to  be  worshiped;  in 
the  Chinese  a  sort  of  secondary  reverence  was  still  paid 
to  them;  but  in  both  countries,  in  the  systems  referred 
to,  something  else  than  the  gods  took  the  chief  place 
in  human  thought.  As  many  millions  (at  least  a  third 
of  the  population  of  the  globe)  profess  religions  today 
that  were  born  from  this  conception  of  the  divine  as 
profess  Christianity. 

The  monistic  philosophy  of  the  Upanishads  was  not 
the  only  one  that  had  grown  up  in  India  before  the  year 
500  B.C.  There  was  another,  called  later  the  Sankhya 
system,1  according  to  which  the  universe  was  dualistic. 
On  the  one  side  was  the  primary  substance,  matter, 
eternally  active,  productive,  the  source  and  seat  of  all 
change.  On  the  other  an  infinite  number  of  individual 
souls.  These  souls  were  caught  in  the  meshes  of  the 
material  universe.  To  this  philosophy  the  doctrine 
of  transmigration  was  added.  Death  brought  no  release 
from  the  pain  of  material  enmeshment.  It  was  begun 
again  in  a  rebirth.  Indeed,  the  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion was  by  this  time  common  to  all  India,  and  not  the 
property  of  any  one  philosophy.  Along  with  these 
conceptions  the  doctrine  of  karma,  or  the  "deed,"  had 
been  accepted,  according  to  which  one's  next  migration 
depended  upon  his  conduct.  If  one  acted  like  a  pig  he 
would  be  born  next  tune  as  a  pig.  If  he  acted  like  a 
Brahmin  (the  highest  caste)  he  might  be  born  into  that 
caste  next  time.  This  was  the  state  of  Indian  thought 
when,  about  567  B.C.,  Gautama,  afterward  called  the 
Buddha,  or  the  "Enlightened,"  was  born. 

'See  supra,  p.  181. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       345 

(i)  The  first  of  the  five  religions  that  accepted  our 
second  conception  of  the  gods  is  Buddhism.  Gautama 
held  to  the  Sankhya  or  dualistic  philosophy.  To  him 
the  gods  were  simply  spirits  caught  like  men  in  the 
meshes  of  the  material  universe.  Gautama  did  not, 
therefore,  appeal  to  the  gods  for  help.  His  theory  of 
salvation — that  which  came  to  him  at  the  time  of  his 
illumination — was  simply  a  system  of  ethical  culture. 
As  the  basis  of  the  theory  were  the  Four  Noble  Truths : 
(a)  All  that  exists  is  subject  to  suffering,  (b)  The  origin 
of  suffering  is  human  desires,  (c)  The  cessation  of 
desires  releases  from  suffering,  (d)  The  path  that  leads 
to  the  cessation  of  existence  and  accordingly  to  the  cessa- 
tion of  suffering  is  the  Noble  Eightfold  Path.  This 
Eightfold  Path,  which  constituted  the  fourth  of  the 
noble  truths,  consisted  of  right  views  (free  from 
superstition  or  delusion),  right  aspirations  (high  and 
worthy  of  an  intelligent  man),  right  speech  (kindly, 
open,  truthful),  right  conduct  (peaceful,  honest,  pure), 
right  livelihood  (bringing  hurt  or  danger  to  no  living 
thing),  right  effort  (in  self- training  and  self-control), 
right  mindfulness  (the  active,  watchful  mind),  right 
rapture  (in  deep  meditation  on  the  realities  of  life).1 

Three  of  the  truths  are  philosophical  assumptions. 
The  fourth  is  an  ethical  path  out  of  the  pain  of  existence. 
He  who  followed  it  attained  Arahatship — a  kind  of 
consciousless,  passionless,  pure  character — and  so  passed 
into  Nirvana  and  escaped  the  burdens  of  existence. 
He  did  not  become  a  saved  soul,  for  Gautama  did  not 
believe  in  an  immortal  soul.  The  soul  was,  in  his  view, 
only  a  bundle  composed  of  desires,  as  a  chariot  is 

'See  supra,  pp.  158,  163,  and  164. 


346  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

composed  of  wheels,  axle,  pole,  etc.  Take  these  away 
and  there  is  no  chariot.  So  take  away  desires  that  cause 
suffering,  and  there  is  no  soul.  So  reasoned  the  Buddha. 
Here  was,  and  for  our  present  purpose  is,  the  important 
point,  a  way  of  salvation  that  had  no  use  for  gods,  or  God. 

(2)  Almost  contemporary  with  Gautama  (perhaps 
even  a  little  earlier)  there  lived  another  Indian  prophet, 
Vardhamana,  more  often  called  Mahavira,  the  great 
hero.    Like  Gautama,  he  accepted  the  doctrine  that 
the  gods  were  helpless  spirits  caught  in  the  network  and 
pain  of  the  universe.    He   too  held   the  doctrine  of 
transmigration  and  the  belief  that  matter  and  soul  are 
distinct.    Like  Gautama,  he  sought  a  way  of  release 
from  the  agony  of  material  existence.     Gautama   at 
the  beginning  of  his  search  had,  like  many  of  his  country- 
men before  him,  tried  asceticism  but  had  given  it  up 
in  despair,  when,  having  reduced  his  physical  strength 
almost  to  zero,  he  found  himself  no  better.     Mahavira, 
on  the  other  hand,  pursued  the  ascetic  path  for  twelve 
years,  when  he  announced  himself  the  Jain,  or  the 
"victorious."    As    Gautama    became    the    apostle    of 
enlightenment   and   of   ethical   culture,    so    Mahavira 
became  the  apostle  of  victory  by  means  of  asceticism. 
He  founded  the  Jain  sect,  which  still  persists  in  India.1 
Like  Buddhism,  it  is  a  system  of  salvation  by  human 
effort.    Had  Mahavira  spoken  in  biblical  phrase,  he 
would  have  sung: 

Mine  own  right  arm  hath  gotten  me  the  victory. 

(3)  Passing  to  China,  while  we  find  the  same  general 
conceptions  of  spirits  and  gods,  we  find  quite  a  different 

1  See  supra,  pp.  175  f. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       347 

development.  The  oldest  books  of  the  empire  teach 
that  the  universe  consists  of  two  souls  or  breaths,  Yang 
and  Yin.  Yang  represents  light,  warmth,  produc- 
tivity, life;  Yin,  darkness,  cold,  death.  The  Yang  is 
subdivided  into  an  indefinite  number  of  good  souls  called 
Shen;  Yin  into  an  indefinite  number  of  demons  and 
specters  called  Kwei.  The  world  is  full  of  these  spirits, 
especially  of  Kwei.  Man  himself  has  in  him  a  shen  that 
accounts  for  his  good  qualities  and  a  kwei  that  accounts 
for  his  bad.  Belief  hi  a  multiplicity  of  spirits  has  per- 
sisted through  all  the  centuries  of  Chinese  civilization 
to  the  present  day.1  Sometimes  even  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  China  catch  the  belief  in  demons. 

In  the  Chinese  state  religion  as  represented  in  the 
Chinese  classics,  which  were  old  even  in  the  days  of 
Confucius,  500  B.C.,  the  worship  of  the  emperor  is 
centered  mainly,  though  not  exclusively,  upon  Heaven 
and  Earth.  Sacrifices  are  also  offered  to  certain  hills 
and  rivers.  To  this  day  Heaven  is  worshiped  at  the 
winter  solstice  in  a  sacred  park  south  of  Pekin,  and 
the  Earth  at  the  summer  solstice  in  a  sacred  park  to  the 
north  of  the  city.  Heaven  and  Earth  are  thus  regarded 
as  the  chief  objects  of  worship.  Other  spirits  are 
appealed  to,  but  in  this  system  it  is  implied,  though 
perhaps  not  fully  thought  out,  that  the  other  gods  are 
inferior  to  the  great  material  universe.  The  system 
simply  betrays  a  tendency. 

(4)  This  tendency  is  seen  at  its  maximum  in  Taoism, 
founded  by  China's  earliest  sage,  Lao-tze,  born  about 
600  B.C.  To  him  the  great  thing  in  the  universe  was 
Too,  a  word  that  may  be  variously  translated  "way," 

*  See  supra,  p.  204. 


348  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

"road,"  "path,"  "nature,"  "power,"  etc.  Probably 
on  the  lips  of  Lao-tze,  Tao  meant  "the  way  the  universe 
goes,"  or  "nature."  To  come  into  harmony  with  the 
Way  was,  according  to  him,  salvation.  Like  the  early 
Christians,  he  was  an  apostle  of  "the  Way."  He  did 
not  make  his  chief  appeal  to  gods  or  spirits.  Nature 
was  superior  to  them.  To  come  into  harmony  with  the 
Tao  was  the  supreme  aim.  He  sought  to  accomplish 
this  by  a  kind  of  mystic  quietism.  Here  are  some  of 
his  sayings:1 

The  Tao  that  can  be  taoed  is  not  the  enduring  and 
unchanging  Tao  (or,  The  way  that  can  be  walked  is 
not  the  enduring  and  unchanging  way).  Again: 

The  grandest  forms  of  active  force 
From  Tao  come,  their  only  source. 
Who  can  of  Tao  the  nature  tell  ? 
Our  sight  it  flies,  our  touch  as  welL 
Eluding  sight,  eluding  touch, 
The  forms  of  things  all  in  it  crouch; 
Eluding  touch,  eluding  sight, 
There  are  their  semblances  all  right. 
Profound  it  is,  dark  and  obscure; 
Things'  essences  all  there  endure. 
Those  essences  the  truth  enfold 
Of  what,  when  seen,  shall  then  be  told. 
Now  it  is  so;  'twas  so  of  old. 
Its  name — what  passes  not  away; 
So  in  their  beautiful  array, 
Things  form  and  never  know  decay. 

Again:  "How  pure  and  still  the  Tao  is,  as  if  it  would 
ever  so  continue!  I  do  not  know  whose  son  it  is.  It 
might  appear  to  have  been  before  Shang-ti." 

'From  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XXXTX;  cf.  supra, 
214!. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       349 

Shang-ti  is  the  chief  of  the  Chinese  spirits.  Legge 
translates  the  term  "God."  When  Lao-tze  says  that 
the  Tao  might  have  been  before  Shang-ti  he  expresses 
the  thought  that  nature  is  at  least  coeval  with,  if  not 
superior  to,  gods  and  spirits. 

(5)  The  fifth  system  of  thought  that  grew  up  from 
the  conception  of  the  divine  that  we  are  considering 
was  Confucianism.  Confucius  was  a  younger  con- 
temporary of  Lao-tze,  was  born  551,  and  died  478  B.C. 
Confucius  was  not  an  originator  of  new  systems  of 
thought,  nor  a  religious  reformer.  He  was  rather  a 
practical  systematizer  of  the  conduct  of  life.  That  his 
system  has  become  a  sort  of  religion  in  China  is  one 
of  the  curious  developments  of  the  Chinese  national 
genius.  Confucius  venerated  the  past,  and  built  on 
the  foundation  of  the  state  religion;  consequently,  for 
him  also,  Heaven  and  Earth  were  superior  to  gods  and 
spirits. 

234.  God  a  philosophic  Absolute. — A  third  funda- 
mental conception  of  the  divine  grew  out  of  northern 
Buddhism,  called  Mahayana  Buddhism,  or  Buddhism 
of  the  Great  Vehicle,  because  its  sacred  books  or  Bible 
contain  so  much  more  than  those  of  southern  Buddhism, 
which  is  called  Hinayana  Buddhism,  or  Buddhism  of 
the  Little  Vehicle.  Northern  Buddhism  developed 
largely  outside  of  India  hi  Nepal,  Thibet,  China,  and 
Japan.  While  in  India  the  Buddha  came  in  a  little 
while  to  be  worshiped  as  an  Incarnation  of  the  super- 
natural, the  whole  system  of  thought  remained  toler- 
ably near  that  of  the  founder.  In  northern  Buddhism, 
however,  belief  in  a  wonderful  system  of  pre-existent 
Buddhas  and  Bodhisattwas  soon  arose.  According  to 


350  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

one  of  these  systems,  which  flourished  in  China  and 
Japan,  all  things  are  comprehended  in  a  Being  who  is 
a  kind  of  philosophical  Absolute.  He  is  in  all  things 
and  comprehends  them  all.  He  cannot  be  set  forth 
in  words  but  has  been  incarnated  in  successive  Buddhas. 
In  this  system  Gautama  occupies  a  subordinate  place. 
There  have  been  many  Buddhas.  Salvation  according 
to  this  system  consists  in  first  attaining  Buddhahood, 
and  then  in  being  absorbed  in  the  Absolute. 

235.  Monotheism. — From  these  developments,  the 
first  and  third  of  which  are  coldly  philosophical,  and  the 
second  theologically  abortive,  one  turns  with  satisfac- 
tion to  monotheism.     Of  the  four  monotheistic  religions, 
the  monotheism  of  Judaism  and  Zoroastrianism  was 
separately    and    independently    developed;     that    of 
Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  was  derived  from 
Judaism. 

236.  Jewish   monotheism. — Monotheism   made   its 
appearance  as  a  permanent  force  in  history  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Hebrew  prophets  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.1 
The  earlier  attempt  of  Amenophis  IV  of  Egypt  to  estab- 
lish the  worship  of  one  god  came  to  nothing.     His  was 
not  a  spiritual  monotheism.     His  one  god  was  the  physi- 
cal sun-disk.     The  Yahweh,  whom  Amos,  Hosea,  and 
Isaiah  proclaimed  as  the  one  God,  developed  though 

"About  the  eighth  century  B.C.  the  mind  of  man  began  to  be 
sufficiently  developed  to  grasp  spiritual  religious  ideas.  During  the 
next  four  hundred  years,  from  China  to  Greece,  men  moved  away  from 
inherited  conceptions  toward  positive  and  spiritual  views.  The  Hebrew 
prophets,  the  authors  of  the  Upanishads,  Zoroaster,  Gautama,  Lao-tze, 
Confucius,  Socrates,  and  Plato  all  lived  during  this  period.  Such  a 
world-wide  movement  of  great  minds  away  from  the  material  toward 
the  spiritual  is  indicative  of  the  beginnings  of  spiritual  adolescence  in 
the  human  race. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       351 

he  was  out  of  an  earlier  national  and  tribal  god,  was 
nevertheless  to  these  prophets  primarily  spiritual  and 
ethical.  He  was  chiefly  interested  in  the  social  welfare 
of  his  people;  he  demanded  justice  between  man  and 
man.  The  best  sacrifice  one  could  offer  to  him  was  "to 
do  justice,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly."  He 
was  to  his  people  as  a  loving  husband.  He  was  a  God 
who  was  near  at  hand,  who  communed  freely  with  his 
people.  "  Surely  Yahweh-God  will  do  nothing,  except  he 
reveal  his  secret  to  his  servants  the  prophets"  (Amos  3:7). 
Through  the  adoption  of  the  Deuteronomic  law,  the 
ministry  of  Ezekiel,  and  the  adoption  of  the  priestly 
law,  the  religion  of  the  prophets  was  transformed  into 
Judaism.  The  monotheism  of  the  prophets  was  retained, 
but  the  nearness  of  Yahweh  was  lost.  God  became 
transcendent.  The  Judaism  of  Palestine  developed  in 
time  the  deism  that  characterizes  Judaism  through  most 
of  its  history.  The  Judaism  of  the  Dispersion,  especially 
Alexandrian  Judaism  in  the  person  of  Philo,  developed  a 
philosophical  conception  of  God  and  his  Logos  (i.e., 
Reason  or  Word),  through  which  God  reveals  himself 
in  the  world.  This  view  was  taken  up  later  by  Chris- 
tianity in  a  modified  form,  and,  perhaps  largely  because 
of  this,  it  ceased  to  be  fostered  by  Judaism.  The 
legalistic,  deistic  conceptions  of  Pharisaism  prevailed, 
and  Judaism  became  what  it  has  been  through  the 
centuries — a  national  religion,  incapable  of  reaching 
to  any  considerable  degree  beyond  its  racial  boundaries, 
ethical  without  emotion,  devoted  to  monotheism  with- 
out passion.  Its  God  has  been  the  one  God,  but  he  has 
been  cold  and  far  away.1 

1  See  supra,  chap.  v. 


352  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

237.  Zoroastrian  monotheism. — Zarathustra,  or  Zoro- 
aster, the  Prophet  of  Persia,  was  a  contemporary  of  the 
prophet  Jeremiah.  He  is  believed  to  have  died  in  the 
year  583  B.C.  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years.  His 
genuine  teaching  is  presented  in  a  body  of  psalms  known 
as  the  Gathas.  To  these  Gathas  there  are  added  some 
centuries  later  the  Yasts  and  the  Vendidad,  the  cere- 
monial books  of  Zoroastrianism.  These  are  the  Book 
of  Leviticus  of  that  religion,  and  bear  about  the  same 
relation  to  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster  as  the  Book  of 
Leviticus  does  to  the  teachings  of  Hosea.  Later  still 
by  a  thousand  years  or  more  is  the  Bundahishn,  which 
bears  about  the  same  relation  to  the  earlier  literature 
that  the  Talmud  does  to  the  Old  Testament,  or  the 
Patristic  literature  to  the  New. 

From  the  Gathas  and  Assyrian  sources  we  learn 
that  Zoroaster  did  for  a  Persian  god  named  Mazda, 
called  Ahura  Mazda,  or  "Lord  Mazda,"  what  Amos 
did  for  Yahweh.  He  lifted  him  out  of  his  local  environ- 
ment and  made  him  the  God  of  the  world.  Zoroaster 
was  a  pure  monotheist.  In  his  thought  Ahura  Mazda 
is  everything.  He  scarcely  mentions  the  prince  of  evil, 
Angra  Maynu,  later  called  Ahriman.  It  was  only  in 
the  later  literature  that  Ahriman  became  a  god  coequal 
with  Ahura  Mazda  who  almost  successfully  contests 
the  sovereignty  of  the  world  with  him.  The  develop- 
ment of  Zoroastrianism  is  paralleled  in  this  respect  by 
some  sections  of  Christianity,  where  Satan  is  regarded 
as  almost  as  powerful  as  God. 

To  return  to  Zoroaster,  he  was  a  pure  monotheist, 
earnest,  ethical,  practical.  As  compared  with  Hebrew 
prophets  his  thought  was  abstract  and  at  times  vague. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       353 

He  personifies  "Good  Thought,"  "Perfect  Righteous- 
ness," "Health"  or  "Salvation,"  "Immortality,"  and 
"Bad  Thought"  until  they  are  subordinate  supernatural 
beings.  As  one  reads  him  he  is  strongly  reminded  of 
the  vocabulary  of  Christian  Science.1 

Perhaps  it  was  because  of  this  abstractness  that 
Zoroastrianism  did  not  succeed  until  King  Vishtaspa 
was  converted  and  began  to  propagate  it  with  the 
sword.  At  all  events  there  is  in  the  use  of  the  sword 
something  of  a  parallelism  between  Zoroastrianism  and 
Islam. 

For  some  reason  the  monotheism  of  Zoroaster  never 
won  many  converts  outside  of  Persia.  It  took  up  into 
itself  after  the  prophet's  death  many  heathen  elements, 
but  so  did  the  religion  of  the  prophets  in  becoming 
Judaism,  and  so  did  Christianity.  Nevertheless,  as  in 
Judaism,  the  bonds  of  race  held  it.  Once  the  religion 
of  a  mighty  people,  Zoroastrianism  holds  today  the 
devotion  of  but  some  100,000  descendants  of  the  old 
Persians,  of  whom  about  90,000  are  resident  in  India. 

238.  Mohammedan  monotheism. — Mohammedan- 
ism derived  its  monotheism  from  Judaism.  It  was  the 
stories  of  Abraham  and  the  patriarchs,  orally  heard  and 
imperfectly  understood,  that  shaped  Mohammed's  con- 
ception of  God.  Islam  yields  to  no  religion  in  the  world 
in  its  emphasis  upon  the  divine  unity  and  its  intolerance 
of  the  worship  of  anything  other  than  the  One  God.  The 
God  of  Islam  out-deists  deism.  He  is  remote.  He  is 
absolute,  incomprehensible,  exalted.  He  is  said  to  be 
merciful  and  compassionate,  but  his  mercy  is  extended 
only  to  believers;  for  unbelievers  he  has  only  the  literal 

1  See  supra,  chap.  vii. 


354  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

fires  of  a  very  material  hell.  He  is  without  real  love. 
The  three  or  four  passages  in  the  Koran  which  speak  of 
the  love  of  Allah  refer,  as  the  context  shows,  to  his 
approval  of  certain  kinds  of  conduct  and  of  men.  Like 
Yahweh,  Allah  is  once  called  "holy,"  but  his  holiness 
is  a  freedom  from  the  violation  of  taboos  rather  than  the 
possession  of  ethical  perfections.  Allah,  according  to 
the  Koran,  is  crafty;  he  can  outwit  tricky  men  in  plot- 
ting. He  was  an  ideal  Arab  of  the  seventh  century 
made  infinite. 

Perhaps  the  dominant  characteristic  of  the  Moham- 
medan conception  of  God  is  his  absolute  rule  of  the 
world.  So  absolute  is  this  rule  believed  to  be  that  he  is 
declared  to  be  the  author  of  evil  as  well  as  of  good.  In 
this  respect  Mohammed  but  perpetuated  and  emphasized 
a  phase  of  the  conceptions  held  by  the  Hebrew  prophets 
concerning  Yahweh. 

This  God,  the  Mohammedan  believes,  rules  the  world 
like  an  oriental  despot.  He  demands  of  his  followers  an 
ethic  of  the  rude  sort  that  Arabia  had  reached  in  the 
seventh  century  A.D.  Islam  means  "  to  submit."  Islam 
is  the  religion  of  submission  to  the  will  of  God.  His 
will  rules  the  world  as  blind  fate.  He  demands  no 
sacrifice;  he  asks  no  atonement  for  sin.  All  men  can 
do  is  to  throw  themselves  on  the  divine  mercy  and  trust 
Allah.  True,  Allah  promises  paradise  to  those  who 
believe  and  to  those  who  die  fighting  for  Islam. 

Like  a  wise  despot  he  rewards  those  who  advance  the 
limits  of  his  dominions. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  Shiites  by  their  doctrine 
of  Imams  practically  modify  this  view  of  God,  and  that 
Mutazilites  have  doubted  it,  such  is  in  brief  the  mono- 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       355 

theism  of  Islam  over  all  the  Mohammedan  world.  It 
was  developed  in  barbarism;  it  appeals  to  barbarism, 
and  since  the  world  is  still  barbarous  Islam  is  the  reli- 
gion of  about  one-sixth  of  the  human  race.  In  East 
Africa,  for  example,  it  is  winning  converts  far  more 
rapidly  than  Christianity.1 

239.  Christian  monotheism. — The  full  religious  rich- 
ness of  monotheism  is  found  only  in  Christianity. 
Things  that  are  precious  are  a  long  time  in  the  making. 
This  is  true  of  the  Christian  conception  of  God.  That 
God  is  One  and  that  he  demands  social  justice  had  been 
the  great  message  of  the  eighth-century  prophets. 
Hosea  and  Jeremiah  had  taught  that  God  loves  like  a 
fond  husband  and  tender  parent.  These  great  truths, 
somewhat  dimmed  in  the  development  of  Jewish  legal- 
ism,  were  not  only  revived  but  surpassed  in  the  teaching 
and  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  "Since  Jesus  lived  God  has 
been  another  and  nearer  Being  to  Man,"  Dr.  Fairbairn 
said.  Dr.  Fosdick  writes:  "Jesus  had  the  most  joyous 
idea  of  God  that  ever  was  thought  of."  "That  joyous 
sense  of  God  he  has  given  his  followers,"  declares  Glover, 
"and  it  stands  hi  vivid  contrast  with  the  feelings  men 
have  toward  God  in  the  other  religions."2  He  gave 
new  vividness  to  the  fatherhood  of  God.  His  all- 
embracing  love,  his  tireless  service  to  the  down-trodden 
and  suffering,  gave  a  new  depth  and  a  new  catholicity 
to  love.  After  he  lived  men  dared  to  believe  that  God 
was  like  him.  The  nearness  of  God,  his  human  interest, 

1  For  a  more  complete  statement  see  the  chapter  on  the  Moham- 
medan and  Christian  conceptions  of  God  contributed  by  the  writer  to 
James  L.  Barton's  Christian  Approach  to  Islam  (Boston,  1918). 

JT.  R.  Glover,  The  Jesus  of  History  (New  York,  1917),  p.  87, 
where  Fairbairn  and  Fosdick  are  also  quoted. 


356  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

his  tireless  and  unchanging  love,  came  back  into  human 
life  at  a  higher  tide  than  ever  before. 

Decades  passed  and  the  great,  nameless  religious 
genius  whose  works  pass  under  the  name  of  John  gave 
new  and  deeper  significance  to  Philo's  doctrine  of  the 
Word.  By  applying  that  term  to  Jesus  Christ  he  trans- 
formed and  transfigured  its  meaning.  The  Logos,  or 
Word,  was  no  longer  a  vague  philosophical  abstrac- 
tion; it  glowed  and  palpitated  with  the  life  and  love 
of  Jesus. 

This  writer  too,  catching  from  Christ  truth  before 
unbelievable,  gave  us  our  best  definitions  of  God:  "God 
is  Spirit";  "God  is  Light";  "God  is  Love"— perfect 
metaphysically,  morally,  religiously.  Men  need  new 
faculties  before  they  can  appreciate  definitions  of  God 
better  than  these.  The  Fourth  Gospel  also  tells  us 
that  Jesus  had  spoken  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  personal 
terms  as  the  Comforter,  and  that  he  had  declared  that 
this  Comforter  was  his  representative. 

As  the  first  Christians  recalled  their  contact  with 
Jesus  Christ  they  were  convinced  that  God  had  in  him 
come  into  human  life  hi  a  unique  way.  After  the  lapse 
of  centuries,  when  the  Arians  were  denying  that  God 
had  come  into  human  life,  the  Nicene  Fathers  enun- 
ciated the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  order  to  maintain 
the  faith  that  God  had  really  come  into  the  life  of  man. 
It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  Nicene  creed  lacks  the  glow 
of  the  apostolic  experience  of  God,  but  faith  expressed 
in  a  formula  is  better  than  a  faith  lost.  In  reality  the 
Fathers  of  the  Oecumenical  Councils  were  feeling  after 
an  important  truth  when  they  formulated  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  God  in  Trinitarian  terms. 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       357 

Different  minds  assume  different  attitudes  toward 
the  conception  that  God  is  a  Trinity.  Some  doubtless 
have  conceived  the  divine  existence  in  a  fashion  hardly 
distinguishable  from  tritheism;  others  have  regarded 
it  as  a  revealed  mystery,  incapable  of  rational  compre- 
hension by  the  mind,  but  a  mystery  before  which  one 
must  worship;  still  others  have  regarded  it  as  a  mathe- 
matical impossibility  to  be  rejected  as  a  figment  of  the 
pious  imagination.  Others  (and  among  them  are  some 
of  the  keenest  of  modern  educated  men)  have  perceived 
that  the  idea  that  God  is  a  Trinity  stands  for  a  great 
and  necessarily  eternal  fact  of  the  divine  nature — a  fact 
that  no  creed  necessarily  expresses  in  its  completeness, 
but  which  is  nowhere  even  hinted  at  in  non-Christian 
monotheistic  conceptions  of  God.1 

Intelligent  life  as  we  know  it  on  the  earth  is  rich  in 
its  power  to  know,  to  sympathize,  and  to  love.  As  no 
fountain  can  rise  higher  than  its  source,  all  this  rich  life 
must  have  its  counterpart  in  God.  No  knowledge  is 
possible  without  a  knowing  subject  and  a  knowable 
object.  Unless  the  nature  of  God  is  sufficiently  manifold 
so  that  he  contains  in  himself  both  subject  and  object,  his 
knowledge  is  not  eternal.  It  is  easy  to  think  back  to  a 
time,  on  that  supposition,  when  God  knew  nothing. 
Unless  the  nature  of  God  embraces  realities  correspond- 
ing in  some  degree  to  differences  in  personality,  God's 
love  could  not  be  eternal.  Love,  unless  it  is  hateful 
self-love,  is  a  social  product.  Its  existence  presupposes 

1  It  was  set  forth  by  John  Caird  in  The  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Chris- 
tianity (Glasgow,  1899),  Lecture  HI;  by  George  A.  Gordon  in  The 
Ultimate  Conceptions  of  the  Faith  (Boston,  1903),  pp.  370  ff .;  and  adopted 
by  the  writer  in  The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message  (New  York,  1912), 
p.  202,  and  in  chapter  ix  of  J.  L.  Barton's  Christian  Approach  to  Islam. 


358  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

a  lover  and  a  beloved.  If  God  be  a  lone  monad  it  is 
not  difficult  to  think  back  to  a  time  when  in  all  the  uni- 
verse, even  in  God,  noble  love  was  unknown.  Before 
the  beginnings  of  creation  such  a  God  was  not  the 
eternally  blessed  One,  but  the  eternally  wretched  One. 
Such  a  conception  of  God  fails  utterly  to  account  for 
the  richness  of  the  intellectual  and  social  life  of  mankind. 
If  God  be  only  such  a  One  as  this,  all  that  is  best  in 
human  life  is  an  exotic  product  foreign  to  the  nature 
of  the  universe;  the  brutal  powers  of  which  must 
inevitably  some  day  blot  it  out.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
God  is  in  himself  a  social  Being,  as  the  Trinitarian 
doctrine  declares,  he  is  not  only  Eternal  Wisdom  and 
Eternal  Love  but  the  guaranty  that  wisdom  and  love 
are  bound  to  triumph  over  ignorance  and  brutality.  If 
all  this  is  true  "the  stars  hi  their  courses"  fight  on  the 
side  of  the  social  ideal.  If  all  this  is  true  it  is  of  the 
very  nature  of  God  that  "he  so  loved  the  world  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
on  him  might  not  perish."  It  is  for  this  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  stands.  It  may  not  express  the 
whole  truth.  God  may  be  multitarian  for  aught  we 
know,  but,  however  rich  in  diversities  his  nature  may 
be,  the  faith  that  God  is  after  all  an  essential  unity, 
that  in  purpose  and  in  love  as  well  as  in  essence  all  his 
richly  diversified  nature  is  a  unity,  prevents  Christianity 
from  deserting  the  ranks  of  monotheistic  religions.  It 
is  the  flower  of  monotheism  as  monotheism  is  the  flower 
of  all  that  had  gone  before. 

We  cannot  really  know  even  a  neighbor,  if  we  forever 
misunderstand  him,  and  this  is  no  less  true  of  God. 
When  the  supernatural  hosts  are  conceived  as  blood- 


THE  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD       359 

thirsty  and  savage,  without  unity  or  ethical  purpose, 
men  cannot  know  God  as  he  is.  When  these  hosts 
are  conceived  as  too  impotent  to  help  man — when  man 
passes  them  by  and  relies  on  his  own  unaided  efforts — 
men  cannot  know  God  so  as  to  let  him  illuminate  life 
and  heart.  When  God  is  conceived  as  an  unknowable 
Absolute,  when  he  is  regarded  as  so  weak  that  Satan  is 
easily  his  rival,  when  he  is  thought  of  as  an  arbitrary 
and  capricious  despot,  the  deeper  riches  of  the  inner 
life,  the  highest  joys  of  the  human  heart,  are  not  called 
forth.  When  we  pass  in  review  the  poverty  of  the 
nations,  when  we  view  in  comparison  the  riches  of 
the  gospel  of  the  "God  who  was  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself,"  inevitably  the  obligation  of  the 
Great  Commission  rests  upon  us  with  a  new  emphasis: 
"Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations." 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

For  supplementary  reading  on  the  topics  treated  in  this 
chapter  the  student  is  referred  to  the  bibliographies  at  the  end 
of  chapters  i,  iv,  v,  vi,  vii,  viii,  ix,  x,  and  xv,  and  in  Appendix  I. 


APPENDIX  I 

ADDITIONAL  BOOKS  FOR  THE  USE  OF 
THE  TEACHER 

ETHNOLOGY 

Keane,  A.  H.    Ethnology.     Cambridge  University  Press,  1896. 
Brinton,  D.  G.    Races  and  Peoples.    New  York,  1890. 
Hutchinson,  Gregory,  and  Lydekker.     The  Living  Races  of  Man- 
kind.   New  York,  1902. 
Ripley,  W.  Z.     The  Races  of  Europe.    New  York,  1889. 

SAVAGE  RACES 

Spencer  and  Gillen.     The  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia. 

London,  1904. 
Howitt,    A.    H.     The    Native    Tribes    of  South-East   Australia. 

London,  1904. 

Dowd,  Jerome.     The  Negro  Races.    New  York,  1907. 
Haddon,  A.  C.     The  Head  Hunters.    London,  1901. 
Gomes,  E.  H.    Seventeen  Years  among  the  Sea  Dyaks  of  Borneo. 

London,  1911. 

Codrington,  R.  H.     The  Melanesians.    Oxford,  1891. 
Lopez,  V.  F.    Les  Races  aryennes  du  Perou.    Paris,  1871. 
Payne,  E.  J.    History  of  the  New  World  Called  America.     2  vols. 

Oxford,  1899. 
Reports  of  the  Cambridge  Anthropological  Expedition  to  Torres 

Straits,  chaps,  xiii  and  xiv.    Cambridge  University  Press, 

1908. 
Frazer,  J.  G.     The  Golden  Bough,  3d  ed.    London,  1914. 

.     The  Belief  in  Immortality.    London,  1913. 

.    Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  Kingship.    London, 

1905. 

.     Totemism  and  Exogamy.    4  vols.    London,  1910. 

Webster,  H.    Primitive  Secret  Societies.    New  York,  1907. 

360 


APPENDIX  I  361 

Lang,  Andrew.     The  Making  of  Religion.     London  and  New 

York,  looo. 
Morris,  M.     "The  Influence  of  War  and  Agriculture  upon  the 

Religion  of  the  Kayans  and  Sea  Dyaks  of  Borneo,"  Journal 

of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  XXV,  231-47. 
Conard,  L.  M.    "The  Idea  of  God  Held  by  the  North  American 

Indians,"  American  Journal  of  Theology,  VII,  635-46. 
Chamberlin,   A.    F.     "Haida,  "   in  Hastings'   Encyclopaedia   of 

Religion  and  Ethics,  VI,  460-77. 
Gray,  L.  H.     "Iroquois,"  ibid.,  VII,  420-22. 
Alexander,  H.   B.     "North  American  Mythology,"  in  Gray's 

Mythology  of  All  Races,  Vol.  X.    Boston,  1916. 
Dixon,  R.  B.     "Oceanic  Mythology"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 

Races,  Vol.  IX.    Boston,  1917. 
Scott,  J.  G.     "Indo-Chinese  Mythology"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of 

All  Races,  Vol.  XII.     Boston,  1918. 

RELIGIONS  IN  GENERAL 

Jevons,  F.  B.   Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion.   London,  1896. 
Toy,  C.  H.    Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religions.     New  York, 


Menziez,  A.    History  of  Religion.    New  York,  1895. 

Carpenter,  J.  E.     Comparative  Religion.    New  York  and  London, 

1912. 
Jevons,   F.   B.    Comparative   Religion.     Cambridge   University 

Press,  1913. 
Brinton,  D.  G.     The  Religion  of  Primitive  Peoples.     New  York, 

1897. 
King,  I.     The  Development  of  Religion,  a  Study  in  Anthropology 

and  Social  Psychology.    New  York,  1910. 
Moore,  George  F.    The  History  of  Religions.    2  vols.    New  York: 

Scribner,  1913-19. 
Morris,  M.     "The  Economic  Study  of  Religion,"  Journal  of  the 

American  Oriental  Society,  XXIV,  394-426. 
Religions  Past  and  Present,  A  series  of  lectures  delivered  by  mem- 

bers of  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Edited  by  James  A.  Montgomery.    Philadelphia,  1918. 
Hopkins,  E.  W.     The  History  of  Religions.    New  York,  1918. 


362  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

SEMITIC  RELIGIONS 

Smith,  W.  R.     The  Religion  of  the  Semites,  ad  ed.    London,  1894. 
Barton,  G.  A.    A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious. 

New  York,  1902. 

Curtiss,  S.  I.    Primitive  Semitic  Religion  Today.    New  York,  1902. 
Barton,  G.  A.     "Tammuz  and  Osiris,"  Journal  of  the  American 

Oriental  Society,  XXXV,  213-23. 

BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  HISTORY 

King,  L.  W.    History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad.    London,  1910. 

.    A  History  of  Babylon.    London,  1915. 

Goodspeed,  G.  S.    A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 

New  York,  1902. 
Rogers,  R.  W.    History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  6th  ed.    New 

York,  1915. 
Jastrow,  M.,  Jr.     The  Civilization  of  Babylonia   and  Assyria. 

Philadelphia,  1915. 

BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  RELIGION 

Jastrow,  M.,  Jr.    Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.    New  York, 

1898. 
.    Religion  Babyloniens  und  Assyriens.     2  vols.     Giessen, 

1905,  1912. 
.    Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 

New  York,  1911. 

.    Hebrew  and  Babylonian  Traditions.    New  York,  1912. 


Rogers,  R.  W.     The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.    New 

York,  1908. 

King,  L.  W.  Babylonian  Religion  and  Mythology.  London,  1899. 
Hehn,  J.  Die  biblische  und  babylonische  Gottesidee.  Leipzig,  1913. 
Jeremias,  A.  Handbuch  der  altorientalischen  Geistkultur.  Leipzig, 


Mackenzie,  D.  A.    Myths  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.    London, 


TRANSLATIONS   OF  BABYLONIAN  RELIGIOUS  TEXTS 

Harper,  R.  F.    Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature,  pp.  282-460. 
New  York,  1901. 


APPENDIX  I  363 

Rogers,  R.  W.    Cuneiform  Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament.    New 

York,  1912. 
Barton,  G.  A.    Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II.    Philadelphia, 


Thompson,  R.  C.    Reports  of  the  Magicians  'and  Astrologers  of 
Nineveh  and  Babylon,  II.    London,  1900. 

-  .     The  Devils   and  Evil   Spirits   of  Babylonia.     2    vols. 
London,  1903,  1904. 

King,  L.  W.     The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation,  Vol.  I.     London, 

1902. 
Jastrow,  M.,  Jr.    Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Birth-Omens.     Gies- 

sen,  1914. 
Barton,  G.  A.  Miscellaneous  Babylonian  Inscriptions,  Part    I, 

Sumerian  Religious  Texts.    New  Haven,  1918. 

EGYPTIAN  HISTORY 

Breasted,  J.  H.    History  of  Egypt,  2d  ed.    New  York,  1909. 

-  .    History  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians   (condensed).    New 
York,  1908. 

Petrie,  W.  M.  Flinders.    History  of  Egypt.    3  vols.    New  York, 

1895-1905. 

Budge,  E.  A.  W.    History  of  Egypt.    8  vols.    London,  1902. 
Mahaffy,  J.  P.     The  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies.     London,  1895. 

EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 

Erman,  A.    Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  translated  by  A.  S. 

Griffith.    1907. 
Steindorf,  G.    Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians.    New  York, 

1905. 
Petrie,  W.  M.   Flinders.    Religion   and   Conscience  in  Ancient 

Egypt.    New  York,  1898. 
Naville,  E.     The  Old  Egyptian  Faith,  translated  by  C.  Campbell. 

London  and  New  York,  1009. 
Breasted,  J.  H.    Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient 

Egypt.    New  York,  1912. 

Mackenzie,  D.  A.    The  Myths  of  Egypt.    London,  1914. 
Budge,  E.  A.  W.    The  Book  of  the  Dead.    London,  1898. 

-  .    The  Gods  of  the  Egyptians.    London,  1004. 


364  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Budge,  E.  A.  W.     The  Literature  of  the  Egyptians,    London,  1914. 
M  tiller,  W.  Max.     "Egyptian  Mythology,"  in  Gray's  Mythology 
of  All  Races,  Vol.  XII.    Boston,  1918. 

THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS 

Carpenter,  J.  E.,  and  Harford-Battersby,  G.     The  Hexateuch. 

London:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1900. 

Addis,  W.  E.     The  Documents  of  the  Hexateuch.    London,  1898. 
Kent,  C.  F.     The  Student's  Old  Testament.    New  York,  1910-14. 

.     The  Historical  Bible,  Vols.  I-IV.    New  York,  1908-13. 

Driver,   S.  R.     "Leviticus,"  W.  H.  Bennett,   "Joshua,"  and 

G.  F.  Moore,  "Judges,"  in  P.  Haupt's  Sacred  Books  of  the 

Old  Testament.    New  York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 
Nowack,    W.    "Richter,    Ruth    und    Biicher    Samuelis,"    and 

R.  Kittel,  "Die  Biicher  der  Konige,"  in  Nowack's  Hand- 

kommentar  zum  Alien  Testament.     Gottingen. 
Box,  G.  H.     The  Book  of  Isaiah.    New  York,  1909. 
Budde,  K.     The  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile.     New  York, 

1899. 
Addis,  W.  E.    Hebrew  Religion  to  the  Establishment  of  Judaism 

under  Ezra.    New  York,  1906. 

Marti,  K.     The  Religion  of  the  Old  Testament.    New  York,  1907. 
Smith,  H.  P.     The  Religion  of  Israel.    New  York,  1914. 
Peters,  J.  P.     The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews.    Boston,  1914. 
Bade,  W.  F.     The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  Today.    Boston, 

1914. 

Barton,  G.  A.     The  Religion  of  Israel.    New  York,  1918. 
Fowler,  H.  T.     The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Hebrew  Religion. 

Chicago:  The  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1916. 
Wallis,  Louis.    Sociological  Study  of  the  Bible.    Chicago,  1912. 

JUDAISM 

The  Jewish  Encyclopedia.    New  York,  1901-6. 
Montgomery,  J.  A.     The  Samaritans.    Philadelphia,  1907. 
Hereford,  R.  T.    Christianity  in  Talmud  and  Midrash.    London, 

1903. 
Abrahams,  I.    A  Short  History  of  Jewish  Literature.    New  York, 

1906. 


APPENDIX  I  365 

Abrahams,  I.  Jewish  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Philadelphia, 
1906. 

.    Judaism.    London,  1910. 

Friedlander,  M.     The  Jewish  Religion.    London,  1000. 

Drummond,  J.    Philo  Judaeus.    London,  1888. 

Montefiore,  C.  G.    Judaism  and  Saint  Paul.    London,  1914. 

Rosenau,  W.  Jewish  Ceremonial  Institutions  and  Customs.  Balti- 
more, 1003. 

Kohler,  K.  Jewish  Theology  Systematically  and  Historically 
Considered.  New  York,  1918. 

Fullerton,  K.  "Zionism,"  Harvard  Theological  Review,  X, 
3I3-35. 

MOHAMMEDANISM 

The  Qur'an,  translated  by  E.  H.  Palmer  (Oxford,  1880),  being 
Vols.  IV  and  IX  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  edited  by 
F.  Max  Miiller. 

Oilman,  A.     The  Saracens.    New  York  and  London,  1887. 

Lane-Poole,  S.  The  Moors  in  Spain.  New  York  and  London, 
1891. 

.     The  Speeches  and  Table-Talk  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed. 

London,  1905. 

Ali,  Ameer.    A  Short  History  of  the  Saracens.    London,  1899. 

Muir,  Sir  William.    Mahomet  and  Islam.    London,  1895. 

Margoliouth,  D.  S.  Mohammed  and  the  Rise  of  Islam  in  the 
"Heroes  of  the  Nations"  series. 

.    Mohammedanism,  in  the  "Home  University  Library." 

.     The   Early   Development   of  Mohammedanism   in   the 

"Hibbert  Lectures."    New  York,  1914. 

Macdonald,  D.  B.  Muslim  Theology,  Jurisprudence  and  Consti- 
tutional Theory.  New  York,  1003. 

.     The  Religious  Attitude  and  Life  in  Islam.     Chicago: 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1909. 

.    Aspects  of  Islam.    New  York,  1911. 

"The  Life  of  Al-Ghazali,"  Journal  of  the  American 


Oriental  Society,  XX,  71-132.    New  Haven,  1899. 
Nicholson,  R.  A.     The  Mystics  of  Islam.    London,  1914. 
Bliss,    F.    J.     The   Religions   of  Modern   Syria   and   Palestine, 

chaps,  iv-vi.    New  York,  1912. 


366  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Goldziher,  I.    Mohammed  and  Islam,  translated  by  Kate  Cham- 
bers Seelye.    New  Haven,  1917. 
Barton,  J.  L.    The  Christian  Approach,  to  Islam.    Boston,  1918. 

ZOROASTRIANISM 

Jackson,  A.  V.  W.  Zoroaster  the  Prophet  of  Ancient  Iran.  London 
and  New  York,  1001. 

Miffler,  F.  Max.  The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  IV,  V, 
XXIII,  XXXI,  and  XLVII. 

Moulton,  J.  H.    Early  Zoroastrianism.    London,  1913. 

Jackson,  A.  V.  W.  "Zoroastrianism,"  in  the  Jewish  Encyclo- 
pedia, XII. 

Moore,  G.  F.  "Zoroastrianism,"  Harvard  Theological  Review, 
V,  180-226. 

Kapadia,  S.  A.  The  Teachings  of  Zoroaster  andlhe  Philosophy  of 
the  Parsi  Religion.  London,  1913. 

Jackson,  A.  V.  W.,  and  Gray,  L.  H.  "The  Religion  of  the 
Achaemenian  Kings,"  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental 
Society,  XXI,  160-84. 

Dhalla,  M.  N.  The  Nyaishes,  or  Zoroastrian  Litanies.  New 
York,  1908. 

Moulton,  J.  H.  "The  Zoroastrian  Conception  of  a  Future  Life," 
Journal  of  Transactions  of  the  Victoria  Institute,  XLVII, 
233-52.  London,  1915. 

Carnoy,-A.  J.  "Iranian  Mythology"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 
Races,  Vol.  VI.  Boston,  1917. 

Moulton,  J.  H.  Treasures  of  Magi;  A  Study  of  Modern  Zoroas- 
trianism. Oxford,  1918. 

RELIGION   OF   THE   VEDAS 

Grassman,  Herman.    Rig-Veda  uebersetzt.     2  vols.    Leipzig,  1877. 
Deussen,  Paul.    Sechzig  Upanishads  des  Veda.    Leipzig,  1897. 
Mtiller,  F.  Max.    Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  I,  XV,  XXXII, 

XLII,  XLVI. 

Lanman,  C.  R.    Atharoa-V 'eda  Samhita.     2  vols.     1905. 
Macdonell,  A.  A.    A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature.    New  York, 

1900. 
.     "Vedic  Mythology"  in  Grundriss  der  indo-irenischen 

Philologie. 


APPENDIX  I  367 

Bloomfield,  M.     The  Religion  of  the  Veda.    New  York,  1908. 
Hoenle,  A.  F.  R.,  and  Stark,  H.  A.    History  of  India.    Cuttack, 

1904. 

Hopkins,  E.  Washburn.  The  Religions  of  India.  Boston,  1895. 
Kieth,  A.  B.  "Indian  Mythology,"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 

Races,  VI,  15-102.    Boston,  1917. 

BUDDHISM 

Miiller,  F.  Max.    Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  X,  XI,  XIII, 
XVII,  XIX,  XX,  XXI,  XXXV,  XXXVI,  and  XLIX. 

Warren,  Henry  C.  Buddhism  in  Translations.  Cambridge,  1896. 
Smith,  V.  A.  Asoka  the  Buddhist  Emperor  of  India.  Oxford,  1901 . 
.  Early  History  of  India  Including  Alexander's  Campaigns. 

Oxford,  1914. 
Cunningham,  A.     The  Ancient  Geography  of  India.     London, 

1871. 
Beal,  S.    A  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures  in  China.     London, 

1871. 
.    A  bstract  of  Four  Lectures  on  Buddhist  Literature  in  China. 

London,  1882. 
Rockhill,  W.  W.     The  Life  of  the  Buddha  and  the  Early  History  of 

His  Orders  Derived  from  Tibetan  Works,  etc.    London,  1884. 
Grimblot,  M.  P.    Sept  suttas  palis.    Paris,  1876. 
Neumann,  K.  E.    Reden  Gotamo  Buddha's.     4  vols.    Leipzig, 

1896-1905. 

Fausboll,  W.     The  Dhammapada.    London,  1903. 
Copleston,  R.  S.    Buddhism.    London,  1892. 
Davids,  T.  W.  Rhys.    Buddhism.    London,  1003. 

.    Buddhist  India.    New  York,  1903. 

Edmunds,  A.  J.    Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels,  4th  ed.    Phila- 
delphia, 1908. 
Davids,    Mrs.    Rhys.    Buddhism,    hi   the    "Home    University 

Library." 
.    A  Buddhist  Manual  of  Psychological  Ethics.    London, 

1903. 

Hopkins,  E.  W.     The  Religions  of  India.    Boston,  1895. 
Kieth,  A.  B.    "Indian  Mythology,"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 

Races,  VI,  187-219.    Boston,  1917. 


368  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

JAINISM 

Jacobi,  H.,  in  Muller's  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  XXII  and 

XLV. 
.     "Jainism"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 

Ethics,  VII. 

Hopkins,  E.  W.     The  Religions  of  India. 
Stevenson,  Mrs.  S.     The  Heart  of  Jainism.    Oxford  University 

Press,  1915. 
Kieth,  A.  B.     "Indian  Mythology,"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 

Races,  VI,  220-29.    Boston,  1917. 

HINDUISM 

Miiller,  F.  Max.     The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  II,  VII, 

VHI,  and  XXXIV. 
Hopkins,  E.  W.     The  Ordinances  of  Manu.    London,  1884. 

.    The  Great  Epic  of  India.    New  York,  1001. 

.     The  Religions  of  India.    Boston,  1895. 

Monier- Williams.    Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,  4th  ed.    London, 

1891. 
Oman,  J.  C.    Indian  Epics,  the  Rdmayana  and  Mahabharata. 

London,  1006. 
.    Cults,  Customs,  and  Superstitions  of  India.    London, 

1908. 
Dutt,  R.  C.    Mahabharata  the  Epic  of  Ancient  India  Condensed 

into  English  Verse.    London,  1899. 
Arnold,  Sir  Edwin.     The  Song  Celestial,  or  the  Bhagavad-Gttd. 

Boston,  1909.     (Arnold's  translation  conveys  poetic  feeling; 

that  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  VIII,  gives  the  original 

with  literal  fidelity.) 
Hastings,  James.    Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  II,  the 

articles  "Arya  Samaj,"  "Bhagavad-Gita,"  "Bhakti-Marga," 

"Brahman,"   "Brahmanism,"   and   "Brahma   Samaj,"   by 

different  authors.    New  York,  1910. 

Macnicol,  N.    Indian  Theism.    Oxford  University  Press,  1915. 
Elmore,  W.  T.    Dravidian  Gods  in  Modern  Hinduism.    Hamilton, 

N.Y.,  1915. 
Advanced  Text  Book  of  Hindu  Religion  and  Ethics.    Benares, 

1904. 


APPENDIX  I  360 

Kieth,  A.  B.    "Indian  Mythology,"  in  Gray's  Mythology  of  All 
Races,  VI,  103-86;    230-50.    Boston,  1917. 

RELIGIONS  OF  CHINA 

Hirth,  F.     The  Ancient  History  of  China.    New  York,  1911. 
Williams,  S.  Wells.    A  History  of  China.    New  York,  1897. 
Boulger,  D.  C.     The  History  of  China.     2  vols.    London,  1898. 
Giles,  H.  A.    A  History  of  Chinese  Literature.    New  York,  1901. 
Muller,  F.  Max.    Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  Ill,  XVI,  XIX, 

XXVII,  XXVIII,  XXXIX,  and  XL  (translations  by  Legge 

of  Chinese  Canonical  Books  and  Life  of  Buddha). 
Wilson,  E.     Chinese  Literature  (translations  of  the  Analects  of 

Confucius,   the   Shi-King,   and   the   sayings   of   Mencius). 

New  York,  1900. 
De  Groot,  J.  J.  M.     The  Religious  Systems  of  China.    6  vols. 

Leyden,  1892-1910. 
.    Sectarianism  and  Religious  Persecution  in  China.     2  vols. 

Amsterdam,  1903-4. 

.     The  Religion  of  the  Chinese.    New  York,  1910. 

Religion  in  China.    New  York,  1912. 


Legge,  James.     The  Religions  of  China.     New  York,  1881. 
Douglas,  R.  K.    Confucianism  and  Taoism.    London,  1000. 
Giles,  H.  A.     The  Civilization  of  the  Chinese.    London,  1911. 

.     China  and  the  Chinese.    New  York,  1902. 

.    Chinese  Poetry  in  English  Verse.    London,  1898. 

.    Confucianism  and  Its  Rivals.     New  York,  1915. 

Soothill,  W.  E.     The  Three  Religions  of  China.    London,  1913. 

RELIGIONS   OF  JAPAN 

Asakawa,  K.    "  Japan, "  in  H.  C.  Lodge,  The  History  of  the  Nations, 

Vol.  VII.    Philadelphia,  1006. 

Brinkley,  F.    A  History  of  the  Japanese  People.    London,  1915. 
Nitobe,  I.     Bushido,  the  Soul  of  Japan.    Philadelphia,  1900. 

.     The  Japanese  Nation.    New  York,  1912. 

Armstrong,  R.  C.    Light  from  the  East:  Studies  in  Confucianism. 

Toronto,  1914. 

Ashton,  W.  G.    A  History  of  Japanese  Literature.    London,  1899. 
Griffis,  W.  E.     The  Religions  of  Japan.    New  York,  1895. 


370  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Knox,  G.  W.  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan.  New  York, 
1907. 

Ashton,  W.  G.    Shinto  (the  Way  of  the  Gods).    London,  1005. 

Ashida,  K.  "Japan,"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  VII. 

Lloyd,  A.,  The  Creed  of  Half  Japan,  Historical  Sketches  in  Japa- 
nese Buddhism.  London,  1911. 

RELIGION   OF   GREECE 

Wright,   Wilmer   Cave.    A   Short  History  of  Greek   Literature. 

New  York,  1007. 
Farnell,  L.  R.     The  Cults  of  the  Greek  States.     5  vols.    Oxford, 

1896-1009. 

.     The  Higher  Aspects  of  Greek  Religion.     New  York,  1912. 

.     "  Greek  Religion, "  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics. 
Fairbanks,  Arthur.    Handbook  of  Greek  Religion.     New  York, 

1910. 
Harrison,  Jane  E.    Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion, 

ad  ed.     Cambridge,  1908. 
.     Themis,  a  Study  of  the  Social  Origins  of  Greek  Religion. 

Cambridge,  1912. 
Murray,  Gilbert.    Four  Stages  of  Greek  Religion.    New  York, 

1912. 

Rouse,  W.  H.  D.    Greek  Votive  Offerings.     Cambridge,  1902. 
Moore,  Clifford  H.     The  Religious  Thought  of  the  Greeks.    Cam- 
bridge, 1916. 

RELIGION  OF  ROME 

Wissowa,   George.    Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer,  ate  Aufl. 

Miinchen,  1912. 
Fowler,  W.  Warde.     The  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman 

People.    London,  1911. 
.    Roman  Ideas  of  Deity  in  the  Last  Century  before  the 

Christian  Era.    London,  1914. 
Carter,  Jesse  B.     The  Religion  of  Numa  and  Other  Essays  on  the 

Religion  of  Ancient  Rome.    New  York,  1906. 
.     The  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome.    Boston,  1911. 


APPENDIX  I  371 

Cumont,     F.     The    Oriental    Religions   in   Roman     Paganism. 

Chicago,  191 1. 

.     The  Mysteries  of  Mithra.     Chicago,  1903. 

.    Astrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

New  York,  1912. 
Glover,  T.  R.    The  Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman  Empire. 

London,  1909. 
Herbig,  G.     "Etruscan  Religion"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of 

Religion  and  Ethics,  V,  532-40. 
Wenley,  R.  M.     "  Cynics, "  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics,  IV,  378-83. 

RELIGION   OF  THE  CELTS 

Rhys,  Sir  John.  Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as 
Illustrated  by  Celtic  Heathendom.  3d  ed.  London,  1898. 

.     Celtic  Folk-Lore.     2  vols.     Oxford,  1901. 

.     Celtic  Britain.    London,  1908. 

MacCulloch,  J.  A.  The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Celts.  Edin- 
burgh, 1911. 

.  "Celts,"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 

Ethics. 

MacLagan,  R.  C.    Scottish  Myths.    Edinburgh,  1882. 

Nutt,  A.     Cuchulainn,  the  Irish  Achilles.    London,  1900. 

.    Ossian  and  the  Ossianic  Literature.    London,  1899. 

John,  I.  B.     The  Mabinogion.    London,  1901. 

Ripley,  W.  Z.  The  Races  of  Europe,  pp.  124-28.  New  York, 
1899. 

RELIGION   OF  THE  TEUTONS 

Gummere,  F.  B.    Germanic  Origins.     New  York,  1892. 

Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  F.  D.  The  Religion  of  the  Teutons. 
Boston,  1902. 

Rydberg,  V.  Teutonic  Mythology.  Translated  by  R.  B.  Ander- 
son, London,  1889. 

Ludlow,  J.  M.  Popular  Epics  of  the  Middle  Ages.  2  vols. 
London  and  Cambridge,  1865. 

Horton,  A.,  and  Bell,  E.  The  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs.  London, 
1898. 

Shumway,  D.  B.    The  Nibelungenlied.    Boston,  1909. 


372  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

Amour,  M.     The  Fall  of  the  Nibelungs.    London,  1897. 

Cottle,  A.  S.    Icelandic  Poetry  or  the  Edda  of  Saemund.    Bristol, 

1797. 
Brodeur,  A.  G.     The  Prose  Edda  by  Snorri  Sturluson.    New  York, 

1916. 
Bugge,  S.     The  Home  of  the  Eddie  Poems.    Translated  by  W.  H. 

Schofield,  London,  1899. 
Lamed,  A.     Tales  from  the  Norse  Grandmother  (The  Elder  Edda). 

New  York,  1881. 
Faraday,  W.     The  Edda:    The  Divine  Mythology  of  the  North. 

London,  1902. 

CHRISTIANITY 

Burton  and  Mathews.     The  Life  of  Christ,   26.  ed.     Chicago-. 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1901. 
Holtzmann,  Oscar.     The  Life  of  Jesus.    London,  1904. 
Case,  S.  J.     The  Historicity  of  Jesus.     Chicago:   The  University 

of  Chicago  Press,  1912. 

Glover,  T.  R.     The  Jesus  of  History.    New  York,  1917. 
Sabatier,  A.     The  Apostle  Paul.    New  York,  1893. 
Bruce,  A.  B.    St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christianity.    New  York, 

1894. 
Stevens,  G.  B.     Pauline  Theology.    New  York,  1892. 

.    Johannine  Theology.    New  York,  1894. 

Scott,  E.  F.     The  Fourth  Gospel.    Edinburgh,  1906. 
Walker,  W.    History  of  the  Christian  Church.    New  York,  1918. 
Fisher,  G.  P.    History  of  Christian  Doctrine.    New  York,  1896. 
Rainey,  R.     The  Ancient  Catholic  Church.    New  York,  1902. 
Case,  S.  J.     The  Evolution  of  Christianity.     Chicago,  1914. 
Adeney,  W.  F.    The  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches.    New  York, 

1908. 
Workman,  H.  B.    Christian  Thought  to  the  Reformation.    New 

York,  1911. 
Allen,  A.  V.  G.    The  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought.    Boston, 

1884. 

.    Christian  Institutions.    New  York,  1897. 

Briggs,  C.  A.     Theological  Symbolics.    New  York,  1914. 
Barton,  G.  A.    The  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message,  2d  ed.    New 

York,  1912. 


APPENDIX  I  373 

Hatch,  E.     The  Organization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches. 

London,  1892. 
Lindsay,  T.   M.    The  Church  and  the  Ministry  in  the  Early 

Centuries.    New  York,  1902. 
.    A   History  of  the  Reformation,    i  vols.    New  York, 

1906-7. 

Jones,  R.  M.    Studies  in  Mystical  Religion.    London,  1909. 
.    Spiritual  Reformers   of  the   Sixteenth   and  Seventeenth 

Centuries.    London,  1914. 
McGiffert,  A.  C.    Protestant  Thought  before  Kant.    New  York, 

1911. 

Moore,  E.  C.    Protestant  Thought  since  Kant.    New  York,  1912. 
Clarke,  W.  N.    Outlines  of  Christian  Theology,  i$th  ed.    New 

York,  1907. 

.     The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Theology.    New  York,  1905. 

Orr,  J.     The  Ritschlian  Theology  and  the  Evangelical  Faith,     ad  ed. 

New  York,  i898(?). 
McGiffert,  A.  C.    The  Rise  of  Modern  Religious  Ideas.    New 

York,  1915. 

Ward,  W.  H.    What  I  Believe  and  Why.    New  York,  1915. 
Caird,  John.     The  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Christianity.     2  vols. 

Glasgow,  1899. 
Gordon,  G.  A.    Ultimate  Conceptions  of  the  Faith.    Boston,  1903. 


APPENDIX  H 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY,  CLASSROOM  DISCUS- 
SION, OR  ASSIGNED  PAPERS 

CHAPTER  I 

1.  The  Function  of  Mythology  in  Religion. 

2.  The  Extent  and  Significance  of  the  Belief  in  Immortality. 

3.  The  Rise  of  the  Belief  in  Pantheons  and  Departmental 
Gods. 

4.  Different  Theories  of  Sacrifice. 

5.  The  Place  of  Prayer  in  Early  Religions. 

6.  The  Conceptions  of  Sin  in  Early  Religions. 

7.  The  Nature  of  Salvation  in  Early  Religions. 

8.  The  Nature  of  Priesthoods  in  Early  Religions. 

9.  The  Characteristic  Features  of  the  Religion  of  the  Primi- 
tive Hamites  and  Semites. 

CHAPTER  n 

1.  The  Relation  of  Babylonian  Views  of  the  Supernatural  to 
Those  of  Primitive  Men. 

2.  Are  There  Traces  of  Totemism  in  Babylonia  ? 

3.  At  What  Period  Did  Astrology  Develop  in  Babylonia  ? 

4.  How    Do    Babylonian   Hymns    Compare    with    Hebrew 
Psalms  ? 

5.  The  Nature  of  the  Babylonian  Conception  of  Sin. 

6.  To   What   Extent   Did   Babylonian   Religion   Influence 
Morals? 

CHAPTER  m 

i.  The  Relation  of  Egyptian  Animal- Worship  to  Totemism. 

a.  The  Various  Theories  Concerning  the  Cult  of  Osiris. 

3.  The  Nature  of  the  Egyptian  Social  Conscience  and  Ethics 
and  the  Relation  of  These  to  the  Economic  and  Political  Life  of 
the  Country. 

374 


APPENDIX  II  375 

4.  The  Relation  of  the  Egyptian  Conceptions  of  the  Life  after 
Death  to  Egyptian  Ethics. 

5.  What  Conception  of  Sin  and  Atonement  Did  the  Egyptians 
Hold? 

CHAPTER  IV 

1.  Was  Yahweh  Originally  Akin  to  Other  Semitic  Gods  ? 

2.  The  Relation  of  Israel's  Early  Religious  Development  to 
Her  Social  Development. 

3.  Modern  Views  of  the  Messianic  Hope  in  Pre-exilic  Times. 

4.  The  Influence  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Wars  on 
Israel's  Religion. 

5.  Modern  Views  of  the  "Servant  of  Yahweh"  in  Second 
Isaiah. 

6.  The  Contrast  between  the  Prophets  and  the  Law. 

CHAPTER  v 

1.  The  Composition  of  the  Psalter. 

2.  The  Religious  Point  of  View  of  the  "Wisdom"  Books. 

3.  The  Nature  and  Function  of  the  Apocalyptic  Books. 

4.  The  Rise  of  the  Pharisees  and  Their  Religious  Influence. 

5.  Philo  and  Judaeo-Greek  Philosophy. 

6.  Jewish  Literature  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

7.  Jewish  Scholars  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

8.  Jewish  Influence  in  Modern  Life. 

CHAPTER  VI 

1.  Comparison  of  Mohammed  with  the  Hebrew  Prophets. 
a.  The  Ethics  of  the  Koran. 

3.  The  Mohammedan  Tests  of  the  Genuineness  of  a  Tradition. 

4.  The  Life  of  Al-Ghazali. 

5.  Ibn  Khaldun's  Metaphysics. 

6.  Islamic  Mysticism. 

7.  The  Druses  and  Babists. 

8.  Has  Mohammedanism  Contributed  Any  Great  Truth  to 
the  World's  Stock  of  Religious  Knowledge  ? 

CHAPTER  vn 
x.  The  Relation  of  Iranian  Heathenism  to  the  Vedic  Religion. 

2.  The  Ethics  of  Zoroastrianism. 


376  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

3.  The  Ritual  of  Later  Zoroastrianism  (Vendidad,  Yashts, 
and  Pahlavi  Texts). 

4.  The  Zoroastrian  Conception  of  the  Last  Things. 

5.  A  Comparison  of  Zoroastrianism  and  Judaism. 

CHAPTER  vm 

1.  The  Nature  of  the  Hymns  Addressed  to  India. 

2.  The  Nature  of  the  Hymns  Addressed  to  Varuna.- 

3.  The  Mixture  of  Priestcraft  and  Nature- Worship  in  the 
Veda. 

4.  The  Influence  of  Racial  Fusion  and  the  Climate  of  India 
on  the  Upanishads. 

5.  The  Contrast  between  the  Philosophy  of  the  Upanishads 
and  Christianity. 

CHAPTER  IX 

1.  The  Relation  of  Buddha's  Conception  of  the  World  to 
That  of  the  Upanishads. 

2.  A  Comparison  of  Buddhist  and  Christian  Ethical  Teaching. 

3.  A  Comparison  of  the  Buddhist  and  Christian  Scriptures. 

4.  A  Comparison  of  Buddhism  and  Jainism. 

5.  A    Comparison   of   Modern   Buddhism    with    Primitive 

Buddhism. 

CHAPTER  x 

1.  The  Relation  of  the  Sankhya-Yoga  Philosophies  to  Bud- 
dhism. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Buddhism  and  Jainism  upon  the  Develop- 
ment of  the  Vishnu-Religion. 

3.  The  Differences  and  Resemblances  of  the  Vishnu-  and 
Civa-Religion. 

4.  A   Comparison   of   the   Bhagavad-Gita   with   the   New 
Testament. 

5.  A  Comparison  of  the  Vedanta  Philosophy  with  That  of 
Spinoza. 

6.  A  Comparison  of  Ram  Mohan  Ray,   Founder  of  the 
Brahma  Samaj,  with  Martin  Luther. 

CHAPTER  XI 

1.  The  Chinese  Conception  of  the  Supernatural. 

2.  Chinese  Divination. 


APPENDIX  II  377 

3.  To  What  Extent  Is  Confucianism  a  Religion  ? 

4.  The  Mysticism  of  Lao-tze  and  Kwang-tze. 

5.  The  History  of  Buddhism  in  China. 

6.  Chinese  Popular  Religion  Today. 

7.  A  Comparison  of  the  Chinese  Religious  Temperament 
with  the  Semitic  and  Indian. 

CHAPTER  xn 

1.  A  Comparison  of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  Conceptions  of 
the  Divine. 

2.  A  Comparison  of  the  Reception  Accorded  Buddhism  in 
the  Sixth  Century  and  That  Accorded  Western  Culture  hi  the 
Nineteenth. 

3.  The  Causes  That  Produced  Bushido. 

4.  The  Differences  between  Confucianism  in  China  and  in 
Japan. 

5.  Catholic  Christianity  in  Japan  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

CHAPTER  Xm 

1.  The  Extent  of  the  Influence  of  Aegean  Civilization  on  the 
Religion  of  Greece. 

2.  The  Growth  of  Greek  Mythology. 

3.  The  Relation  of  the  Development  of  Greek  Religion  to 
the  Expanding  Life  of  the  Nation. 

4.  A  Comparison  of  Greek  Philosophical  Monotheism  with 
Hebrew  Monotheism. 

5.  A  Comparison  of  Greek  Religious  Philosophy  with  the 
Religious  Philosophies  of  India. 

6.  A  Comparison  of  Greek  Religious  Philosophy  with  That 
of  China. 

7.  The  Influence  of  Greek  Philosophy  upon  Judaism. 

CHAPTER  xrv 

1.  A  Comparison  of  Roman  Family  Religion  with  the  Earliest 
Forms  of  Other  Indo-European  Religions. 

2.  A   Comparison  of  Early   Roman   Religion   with   Early 
Japanese  Religion. 

3.  Etruscan  Religion  and  Its  Influence  upon  Rome. 


378  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

4.  The  Influence  of  Imperialism  on  the  Religion  of  Rome. 

5.  The  Organization  of  Emperor- Worship. 

6.  The  Birth  and  Development  of  Individualism  in  Roman 
Religion. 

7.  Oriental  Influences  in  the  Religion  of  the  Empire. 

CHAPTER  xv 

1.  The  Ethnographic  Problem  of  the  Celtic  Race. 

2.  The  Origin  of  the  Druids. 

3.  Traces  of  Matriarchy  among  the  Celts. 

4.  The  Nature  and  Functions  of  the  Irish  God  Lug. 

5.  The  Celtic  Elysium  in  Irish  Poetry. 

6.  Mythical  Elements  in  Teutonic  Heroic  Sagas. 

7.  The  Nature  and  Form  of  Teutonic  Temples  in  Germany, 
Scandanavia,  and  Iceland. 

8.  The  Norse  World-Tree  Yggdrasil. 

9.  Teutonic  Cosmogony. 

10.  Survivals  of  Celtic  and  Norse  Religion  in  European 
Christianity. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

1.  The  Nature  of  Gnosticism  and  Its  Influence  on  Christianity. 

2.  The  Influence  of  the  Mystery-Religions  upon  Christianity. 

3.  The  Influence  of  Greek  Thought  on  Christianity. 

4.  The  Influence  of  the  Decian  Persecution  upon  Christian 
Thought. 

5.  The  Rise  of  Manichaeism,  Its  Nature,  and  Its  Influence  on 
Christianity. 

6.  The  Influence  of  Roman  Imperial  Ideals  upon  the  Church. 

7.  The  Causes  of  the  Reformation. 

8.  The  Influence  of  the  Philosophy  of  Locke  on  Christianity. 

9.  The  Influence  of  the  Philosophy  of  Kant  on  Christianity. 

10.  The  Mystic  Elements  in  Christianity. 

u.  The  Influence  of  Modern  Science  on  Christianity. 

12.  The  Rise  of  Modern  Missions. 

13.  The  New  Theology. 


APPENDIX  III 

OUTLINE  OF  A  BOOK  TO  BE  WRITTEN 
BY  THE  STUDENT 

CHAPTER  I 

1.  Evidence  for  the  Psychological  Unity  of  the  Race. 

2.  The  Place  of  Ritual  in  Early  Religions. 

3.  The  Function  of  Myths  in  Early  Religions. 

CHAPTER  n 

1.  The  Prevalence  of  Animism. 

2.  The  Conceptions  of  the  Soul  Entertained  by  Early  Men. 

3.  Diffusion  of  the  Belief  in  Transmigration  of  the  Soul. 

4.  Conceptions  of  the  Life  after  Death. 

CHAPTER  m 

1.  The  Development  of  Gods. 

2.  Their  Connection  with  Specific  Localities. 

3.  Effects  of  Social  and  Economic  Conditions  upon  the  Ideas 
Entertained  of  Them. 

4.  Fetishism  and  Idols. 

CHAPTER  IV 

1.  Totemism. 

2.  Taboo. 

3.  Sacrifice. 

CHAPTER  V 

i.  Early  Ideas  of  Sin,  Atonement,  and  Righteousness. 

CHAPTER  VI 

1.  The  Babylonian   Conception  of  the  Supernatural,  and 
Man's  Relation  to  It,  Including  Sin,  Sickness,  Atonement,  and 
Healing. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Religion  on  Morals. 

379 


380  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  VH 

i.  The  Babylonian  Conception  of  Nature  as  Reflected  in  the 
Myths,  Including  the  World,  Its  Structure,  the  Abode  of  the 
Gods  and  the  Under-World,  the  Heavens  and  the  Heavenly 
Bodies. 

CHAPTER  vrn 

1.  The  Egyptian  Gods  and  Their  Development. 

2.  The  Egyptian  Conception  of  the  Supernatural  and  Man's 
Relation  to  It. 

3.  The  Place  of  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice  in  the  Egyptian 
Religion. 

4.  The  Reform  of  Ikhnaton  and  Why  It  Failed. 

CHAPTER  IX 

1.  The  Evolution  of  the  Social  Conscience  in  Egypt. 

2.  The  Standards  of  Conduct  in  Egyptian  Ethical  Systems. 

3.  The  Influence  of  Egypt  upon  Christian  Theology. 

CHAPTER  x 

1.  The  Formation  of  Israel. 

2.  The  Purpose  and  Value  of  the  Patriarchal  Narratives. 

3.  The  Covenant  at  Sinai. 

4.  The  Effects  of  the  Settled  Life  in  Palestine  on  the  Religion. 

5.  The  Social  and  Religious  Life  in  the  Time  of  Elijah  and 
Elisha. 

CHAPTER  XI 

1.  The  Religious  Ideals  of  the  Eighth-Century  Prophets. 

2.  Their  Social  Ideals. 

3.  The  Messianic  Hope  in  Isaiah. 

4.  The  Conditions  That  Led  to  the  Deuteronomic  Reform. 

5.  The  Religious  Ideals  of  Jeremiah. 

6.  Ezekiel  and  the  Codifiers  of  the  Priestly  Law. 

7.  The  Second  Isaiah's  Religious  Conceptions. 


APPENDIX  HI  381 

CHAPTER  XH 

1.  The  Standpoint  of  Legalism. 

2.  The  Standpoint  of  the  Sages. 

3.  The  Religious  Passion  of  the  Psalmists. 

4.  The  Religious  Need  Supplied  by  the  Synagogue. 

5.  The  Religious  Need  Supplied  by  the  Apocalypses. 

6.  The  Forces  Which  Developed  Pharisaism. 

7.  The  Effects  of  Greek  Philosophy  upon  Judaism. 

CHAPTER  xm 

1.  The  Religious  Need  Supplied  by  the  Talmud. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Early  Christianity  upon  the  Development 
of  Judaism. 

3.  The  Influence  of  Mohammedanism  upon  Judaism. 

4.  The  Blossoming  of  Jewish  Genius  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

5.  The  Influence  of  the  Ghetto  upon  Judaism. 

6.  The  Influence  of  Modern  Thought  upon  Judaism. 

7.  The  Contribution  of  Modern  Judaism  to  Modern  Life. 

CHAPTER  xrv 

1.  The  Methods  and  Aims  of  Mohammed's  Ministry  at 
Mecca. 

2.  The  Methods  and  Aims  of  His  Ministry  at  Medina. 

3.  The  Ideals  of  the  Medina  Caliphate. 

4.  The  Transformation  of  Those  Ideals  in  the  Omayyad  and 
Abbasside  Caliphates. 

5.  The  Islamic  State,  and  Islamic  Law. 

CHAPTER  xv 

1.  The  Rift  between  the  Shiites  and  Sunnites. 

2.  The  Religious  Conceptions  of  the  Shiite  Sects — How  Many 
of  Them  Are  Foreign  to  Islam  ? 

3.  Mohammedan  Scholastic  Theology,  Its  Aims  and  Methods. 

4.  The  Islamic  Ascetic  Orders,  Their  Number,  Aims,  and 
Influence. 

5.  The  Principles  of  Mohammedan  Mysticism. 


382  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

CHAPTER  XVI 

1.  Ancient  Iran,  Its  People,  and  Religion. 

2.  Zoroaster,  His  Preparation  for  His  Work. 

3.  His  Prophetic  Career. 

4.  Zoroastrianism  under  the  Achaemenians. 

5.  Under  the  Greeks  and  Parthians. 

6.  Under  the  Sassanians. 

7.  Since  the  Mohammedan  Conquest. 

CHAPTER  xvn 

1.  Zoroaster's  Doctrine  of  God  and  Angels. 

2.  Angra  Mainyu  and  Demons  in  Zoroastrianism. 

3.  The  Doctrine  of  Man  in  Zoroastrianism. 

4.  Zoroastrian  Ethics. 

5.  Zoroastrian  Ritual  and  Priesthood. 

6.  The  Zoroastrian  Eschatology. 

7.  The  Development  from  the  Founder  to  the  Later  Religion. 

CHAPTER  xvm 

1.  The  Land  and  Climate  of  India. 

2.  The  People  of  the  Vedas  and  Their  Social  Organization. 

3.  The  Strata  of  the  Vedic  Literature. 

4.  The  Gods  of  the  Rig- Veda. 

5.  The  Ritual  of  the  Rig- Veda. 

6.  The  Vedic  Conception  of  Salvation. 

CHAPTER  XIX 

1.  The  Demonology  and  Magic  of  the  Atharva-Veda. 

2.  The  Development  of  Thought  in  the  Brahmanas. 

3.  The  Philosophy  of  the  Upanishads. 

CHAPTER  xx 

1.  The  Life  of  Vardhamana,  the  Founder  of  Jainism. 

2.  The  Jain  Conception  of  the  Universe  and  Salvation. 

3.  The  Rules  of  the  Jain  Order. 

4.  The  Later  Development  of  Jainism. 


APPENDIX  m  383 

CHAPTER  XXI 

1.  The  Early  Life  of  Gautama. 

2.  The  Religious  Experience  of  Gautama. 

3.  The  Ministry  of  Gautama. 

4.  The  Philosophical  and  Ethical  Teaching  of  Gautama. 

5.  Buddhist  Monks. 

6.  The  Buddhist  Laity. 

7.  The  Apotheosis  of  Gautama. 

8.  Mahayana  Buddhism. 

CHAPTER  xxn 

1.  The  Sankha  and  Yoga  Systems  of  Philosophy.  ^ 

2.  The  Religion  of  the  Lawbooks  of  Gautama,  Apastamba, 
and  Manu. 

3.  The  Development  of  the  Krishna- Vishnu  Religion  in  the 
Mahabharata,  Including  the  Bhagavad-Gita. 

4.  The  Development  of  the  Ramanya  and  the  Rama  Sects. 

5.  The  Religion  of  the  Institutes  of  Vishnu. 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

i.  The  Vedanta  Philosophy. 

a.  The  Philosophy  of  Ramanuja  and  Other  Systems. 

3.  The  Civaite  Sects. 

4.  Indian  Temples  and  Their  Ritual. 

5.  The  Sikhs  and  Other  Mediaeval  Sects  of  India. 

6.  Modern  Reformed  Sects  of  India. 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

1.  The  Animism  of  the  Chinese. 

2.  Ancestor- Worship  in  China. 

3.  The  State  Religion  of  China. 

4.  Confucius  and  His  System. 

5.  Mencius  and  the  State  Religion. 

CHAPTER  XXV 

1.  The  Taoism  of  Lao-tze. 

2.  The  Taoism  of  Kwang-tze. 


384  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

3.  The  Degeneracy  of  Taoism. 

4.  The  Introduction  of  Buddhism  into  China. 

5.  The  History  and  Character  of  Chinese  Buddhism. 

6.  Popular  Religion  hi  China. 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

1.  The  Social  Organization  of  the  Early  Japanese. 

2.  The  Primitive  Beliefs  and  Practices. 

3.  The  Organization  of  Shinto. 

4.  The  Influence  of  Shinto  on  the  History  of  Japan. 

CHAPTER  XXVn 

1.  The  Coming  of  Buddhism  to  Japan. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Buddhism  on  the  Country. 

3.  The  Buddhist  Sects  hi  Japan. 

4.  The  Various  Waves  of  Confucian  Influence  in  Japan. 

5.  The  Differences  between  Japanese  and  Chinese  Confu- 
cianism. 

CHAPTER  XXVm 

1.  The  Religion  of  the  Aegean  Civilization. 

2.  The  Religion  Brought  by  the  Greeks. 

3.  The  Religion  of  the  Epic  Poems. 

4.  The  Religion  of  Hesiod. 

5.  The  Religion  of  the  Sixth  and  Fifth  Centuries  B.C. 

CHAPTER  XXIX 

1.  The  Religion  of  the  Tragedians. 

2.  The  Religion  of  Socrates. 

3.  The  Religion  of  Plato. 

4.  The  Religion  of  Aristotle. 

5.  The  Religion  of  the  Stoics. 

6.  The  Religion  of  the  Epicureans. 

CHAPTER  XXX 

x.  The  Family  Religion  of  the  Romans. 
2.  The  Religion  of  the  Etruscans.1 

1  See  "Etruscan  Religion"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  V,  S32-S40. 


APPENDIX  III  385 

3.  The  Development  of  the  Roman  State  Religion. 

4.  Religion  from  500  to  200  B.C. 

5.  Religion  from  200  to  31  B.C. 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

1.  The  Worship  of  Roman  Emperors. 

2.  The  Systems  of  Philosophy  in  the  Empire. 

3.  The  Mystery-Religions  in  the  Empire. 

CHAPTER  XXXn 

1.  Who  the  Celts  Are. 

2.  The   Names  of  Their   Deities   in   the   Different   Celtic 
Nations. 

3.  The  Celtic  Conception  of  Sin  and  Atonement. 

4.  The  Celtic  Beliefs  hi  Life  after  Death. 

CHAPTER  xxxrn 

1.  Teutonic  Social  Organization. 

2.  The  Connection  between  Teutonic  Religion  and  Tribal 
Affairs. 

3.  The  Nature  of  the  Various  Teutonic  Gods. 

4.  The  Place  of  Sacrifice  in  Teutonic  Religion. 

5.  The  Place  Accorded  War  and  the  Warrior  in  Teutonic 
Religion. 

6.  The  Soul  and  Its  Fortunes  According  to  Teutonic  Con- 
ceptions. 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 

1.  The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Jesus. 

2.  Christianity  before  Paul. 

3.  Paul,  the  Man,  His  Thought  and  Work. 

4.  The  Johannine  Christianity. 

5.  Other  Currents  of  Thought  in  the  New  Testament. 

CHAPTER  XXXV 

i.  The  Character  of  Gnosticism. 

a.  The  Church  Struggling  with  Gnosticism. 

3.  The  Christian  Apologists. 


386  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 

4.  The   Broadening   Influence   of   Greek   Philosophy   upon 
Christianity. 

5.  The  Development  of  the  Idea  of  the  Church  in  the  West. 

6.  The  Christological  Controversies. 

7.  The  Later  History  of  the  Eastern  Churches. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

1.  The  Rise  of  the  Papacy. 

2.  The  Theology  of  Augustine. 

3.  The  Rise  of  Scholasticism. 

4.  The  Closing  of  the  Bible  to  the  Laity. 

5.  The  Christian  Saints  of  the  Middle  Ages,  St.  Bernard, 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  etc. 

CHAPTER  XXXVTI 

1.  Causes  Leading  to  the  Reformation. 

2.  The  Work  of  Luther  and  Zwingli. 

3.  The  Work  of  Calvin. 

4.  Minor  Sects,  Mennonites,  Schwenkfelders,  Anabaptists, 
Socinians,  etc. 

5.  The  Reformation  in  England  and  Scotland. 

6.  The  Seventeenth-Century  Christianity. 

CHAPTER  xxxvrn 

1.  Christian  Thought  and  Life  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

2.  The  Revival  of  Interest  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

3.  Christian  Missions  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

4.  The  Influence  of  Hegel  on  Christianity. 

5.  The  Tractarian  Movement. 

6.  Reactionary  Movements  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 

7.  The  Influence  of  Expanding  Knowledge  on  Christianity. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX 

1.  The  Difference  between  Gods  and  Other  Animistic  Spirits. 

2.  Savage  Conceptions  of  Gods  as  to  Functions,  Shrines,  and 
Ethics. 

3.  Pantheons  and  the  Feeling  for  the  Unity  of  the  World. 


APPENDIX  III  387 

4.  Evidences  That  There  Was  a  New  Epoch  in  the  Spiritual 
Development  of  Man  between  800  and  400  B.C. 

5.  The  Religion  of  Pantheism. 

6.  Religions  of  Salvation  by  Self. 

7.  The  Various  Forms  of  Mahayana  Buddhism. 

8.  The  Religious  Value  of  Monotheism,  as  Shown  (a)  in 
Judaism,  (ft)  in  Zoroastrianism,  (c)  in  Islam,  (d)  in  Christianity- 

9.  The  Most  Satisfactory  Form  of  Monotheism  as  Shown  by 
Its  Fruits. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Aaron,  6a 

Abbaside  caliphate,  103  f. 

Abelard,  328 

Abrahams,  I,  96,  364,  365 

Abu  Bekr,  101 

Abu  Hanifa,  91,  107 

Abydos,  Egyptian  city,  37,  40 

Achaemenian  dynasty,  119,  127  f., 

13° 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  316 
Acvins,  146 
Adapa,  29 
Adda,  Babylonian  storm-god,  23, 

25 

Addis,  W.  E.,  75,  78,  364 
Adeney,  W.  F.,  372 
Aegean  civilization,  243 
Aeschylus,  242,  254  f. 
Aesculapius,  272 
Aeshma  Daeva,  133 
Agade,  Babylonian  city,  20,  22,  23 
Agathias,  131 

Agni,  fire-god,  122,  138,  145,  184 
Ahab,  65 

Ahmad  ibn  Hanbal,  108 
Ahriman,  133,  134,  135.    See  also 

Angra  Mainyu 
Ahura,  121 
Ahura  Mazda,  121,  123  f.,  125  f., 

128,  130,  133,  135 
Ajatasatru,  169 
Akiba,  Rabbi,  88 
Akkad,  24 
Al-Ashari,  112 
Al-Bokhari,  106 

Alexander  the  Great,  81,  131,  169 
Al-Ghazali,  112  ff. 


AH,  Ameer,  365 

Ali,  fourth  caliph,  102  f. 

Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  372 

Al-Mohads,  115 

Al-Moravides,  115 

Altars,  Hebrew,  65;  Indian,  178 

Alu-ellu,  19 

Amen  (Amon),  Egyptian  god,  36, 

37,  47,  50  f. 

Amesha  Spentas,  133,  134 
Amitabha,  220 
Amorites,  23 
Amos,  66,  67,  332 
Amour,  M.,  372 
Amurru  (Amorites),  23 
Anahita,  129,  133 
Analects  of  Confucius,  201,  211 
Anath,  Syrian  deity,  49 
Anaxagoras,  253 
Anaximander,  253 
Anaximenes,  253 
Anglo-Saxons,  304  f. 
Angra   Mainyu;     126,    130,    133, 

134,  135 

Animal  worship,  37 
Animism,  6  f.,  336  f. 
Anselm,  327  f. 
Antiochus  IV,  83 
Ami,  god,  22,  25,  27 
Apastamba,  178,  184,  185 
Aphrodite,  242,  247 
Apis  bulls,  49 
Apocalypses,  83 
Apocalyptic  literature,  83 
Apollo,  242,  247,  272,  277 
Apostles'  Creed,  320  f. 
Arabia,  97  f. 


392 


Arahat  and  Arahatship,  164 

Aralu,  6 

Archangels,    Zoroastrian,     123$., 

126, 133 

Archdemons,  Zoroastrian,  134 
Arian  controversy,  322 
Aristophanes,  256  f. 
Aristotle,  260  f. 
Anus,  322 
Arjun,  197 

Arjuna,  187,  188,  190 
Ark  of  Yahweh,  62 
Arminius,  Jacobus,  330 
Armstrong,  R.  C.,  369 
Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  179,  190,  200, 

368 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  129 
Artemis,  242 
Aruru,  goddess,  28 
Arya  Samaj,  198,  200 
Aryaman,  138 
Aryans,  118,  139 
Asakawa,  K.,  225,  241,  369 
Asher,  tribe  of,  61 
Ashera,  goddess,  61 
Ashera,  post,  60,  70 
Ashida,  K.,  370 
Ash-Shafici,  107 
Ashtar,  18,  49 
Ashtart,  18 

Ashton,  W.  G.,  223,  370 
Ashur,  city  and  god,  25 
Ashvagosha,  159,  160,  169 
Asoka,  1 60,  170,  179 
Assassins,  no  f. 
Assyria,  25 
Astar,  18 
Asura,  121 

Atharva-Veda,  141,  153 
Athene,  242,  247 
Athtar,  18 
Atman  (Absolute  Self),  155 


Aton,  sun-god,  47  f. 

Atonement :       Babylonian ,      31; 

Anselm's    doctrine    of,    327  f.; 

modern  view  of,  333 
Attar,  18 

Atum,  Egyptian  god,  37,  42 
Augury,  271 

Augustine  of  Hippo,  325  f. 
Augustus,  277 

Auharmazd  (Ahura  Mazda),  123 
Australian  tribes,  4,  5 
Avatars,  191 
Avicibron,  92 

Baal,  Syrian  god,  49 

Baals,  64 

Babism,  1 1 1  f . 

Babylon,  24 

Babylonia,  17;  Semitic  back- 
ground in,  18 

Bacchanalia,  275 

Bacchus,  275 

Bacon,  B.  W.,  320 

Bade,  W.  F.,  364 

Bagoses,  80 

Bahaism,  in 

Bahaullah,  HI 

Baldr,  Norse  god,  306 

Ball,  C.  J.,  202 

Barton,  J.  L.,  366 

Baruch,  Apocalypse  of,  315 

Basilides,  320 

Bastet,  goddess,  37 

Bau,  goddess,  21 

Beal,  S.,  160,  367 

Bedhet,  39 

Bel  (Enlil),  24;  in  creation  story, 
27 

Bell,  E.,  287,  371 

Beltane,  Celtic  festival,  297 

Benares,  160,  165;  temples  in, 
196,  199 

Beni  Hasn,  49 


INDEX 


393 


Bennett,  W.  H.,  364 

Beowulf,  epic  of,  305 

Berossos,  28 

Bethel,  64 

Bhagavad-Gita,  179,  190,  191,  200 

Bible  closed  to  laity,  328 

Bibliography,  360  ff . 

Bindusara,  169 

Birth  ceremonies,  10 

Bliss,  F.  J.,  365 

Blodget,  H.,  208,  222 

Blood-revenge,  60 

Bloomfield,  M.,  121,  140, 150, 152, 

157,  367 

Boddhidharma,  217 
Boddhisattwas,  173,  218,  232 
Borsippa,  24 
Bo-tree,  162 
Boulger,  D.  C.,  369 
Box,  G.  H.,  364 
Bragi,  Norse  god  of  poetry,  306 
Brahma  Samaj,  197,  200 
Brahman,  Absolute  Self,  139,  155, 

182,  185,  195 
Brahmanas,  142,  153 
Brahmanism,  200 
Brahmans,  162 
Brazen  sea,  23  f. 
Breasted,  J.  H.,  35,  36,  43,  45,  46, 

47,  48,  49,  50,  53,  57,  264,  285, 

363 

Brigp,  C.  A.,  372 
Brigit,  Irish  goddess,  291  f. 
Brinkley,  F.,  232,  237,  369 
Brinton,  D.  G.,  3,  15,  360 
Brodeur,  A.  G.,  286,  287,  372 
Bronze  age,  i  f. 
Bruce,  A.  B.,  372 
Brythons,  religion  of,  295 
Bubastis,  37 
Buckley,  E.,  227 
Budde,  K.,  364 


Buddha,  162 

Buddhas,  173  f. 

Buddhism,  158  ff.;  sources  of, 
iS9f.;  doctrines  of,  163  ff.; 
mendicant  order  of,  166  ff.; 
early  history  of,  168  f.;  spread 
of,  i7of.;  transformation  of, 
171;  connection  with  Chris- 
tianity, 172;  Mahayana  and 
Hinayana,  172;  in  China, 
217  ff.;  monks  of,  218;  in 
Japan,  232  ff. 

Budge,  E.  A.  W.,  55,  363,  364 

Bugge,  S.,  306,  309 

Bundahishn,  119,  133,  134,  135 

Bur-Sin,  24 

Burton,  E.  D.,  334,  372 

Busiris,  37,  40 

Buto,  37 

Caesar,  Julius,  290  f.,  299 
Caird,  John,  357,  373 
Cakta  sect,  195 
Calendar  at  Lagash,  22 
Caliphates:        Medina,       101  f.; 

Damascus,      103;       Abbasside, 

103  f.;    Fatimite,  104 
Calvin,  John,  329  ff. 
Cambyses,  129 
Canon:  Old  Testament,  88;  New 

Testament,    320  f.;     Muratori, 

320 

Captivity,  Jewish,  80 
Carnoy,  A.  J.,  128,  366 
Carpenter,  J.  E.,  74,  75,  364 
Carter,  J.  B.,  276,  277,  370 
Carvakas  philosophy,  184 
Case,  S.  J.,  372 
Castes,  Indian,  154,  178 
Castor,  272 
Celtic  religion,  288  f. 
Celts,  286  ff. 
Ceralia,  269 
Ceremonies,  9  f. 


394 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Ceres,  269,  272 

Cerunnos,  Celtic  god,  291 

Chalcedon,  Council  of,  323 

Chamberlain,  A.  F.,  361 

Chandragupta  I,  169 

Chandragupta  II,  180  ff. 

Chang  Tao  Ling,  217 

Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  P.  D., 
302,  306,  312,  371 

China,  225;  its  history,  201  ff. 

Christianity,  313  ff.;  in  second 
century,  3202.;  in  eighteenth 
century,  330  f.;  in  nineteenth 
century,  331;  reactionary  move- 
ments in,  331  f.;  modern 
thought,  332;  universal  ele- 
ments in,  334 

Chronology,  Vedic,  142 

Chu  Hsi,  212,  240 

Church:     early    Jewish,     315  f.; 

Eastern,    321  f.;     Egyptian    or 

Coptic,  ^  323;     Armenian,    323; 

Abyssinian,     323;      Nestorian, 

323;  Western,  3245.;  Roman, 

331  ff.;  Anglican,  330. 
Cicero,  265,  276 
Circumcision,  13 
Civa  and  Civaites,  188,  194,  198, 

200 

Clarke,  W.  N.,  373 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  129,  321 
Codrington,  R.  H.,  360 
Colossians,  Epistle  to,  317 
Conard,  L.  M.,  361 
Confucianism,   209  f.;    in  Japan, 

237  f. 
Confucius,  201,  206,  209!.,  215, 

216,  240  f.,  332,  349 
Constantine,  322  f. 
Constantinople:    first  Council  of, 

322;    second  Council  of,   323; 

third  Council  of,  323  f.;   fafl  of, 

329 

Copleston,  R.  S.,  367 
Copper  age,  i  f . 


Corinthians,  first  Epistle  to,  317 

Comill,  H.,  82 

Cosmogony:       Babylonian,      27; 

Vedic,  148  f.;    Teutonic,  309  f. 
Cottle,  A.  S.,  372 
Council  of  Nicaea,  322 
Councils,  oecumenical,  322  f. 
Covenant  of  Yahweh,  62,  63,  65, 

66,  67;  book  of,  69 
Creation  myths:   Babylonian,  27, 

28;    Vedic,    148  f.;     Teutonic, 

309  f. 
Creed:       Apostles',    320  f.;       of 

Nicaea,  322;  of  Chalcedon,  323 
Crete,  243 
Cuchulainn,  294 
Cult,  Egyptian,  51 
Cumont,  F.,  281,  283,  284,  285 

37i 

Cunningham,  A.,  175,  367 
Curtis,  S.  I.,  12,  362 
Cybele,  275  f.,  280  f. 
Cynics,  278  f. 
Cyprian,  325 
Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  73,  127 

Dagon,  23 

Dalai  Lama,  174 

Damascus  Caliphate,  103 

Dan,  64 

Daniel,  Book  of,  84 

Danu,  Irish  goddess,  292 

Darius  I,  128,  129 

Davids,  Mrs.  T.  W.  Rhys,  159, 

163,  165,  367 
Davids,  T.  W.  Rhys,  159, 163, 165, 

166,  169,  177,  367 
Dead,  Book  of,  55 
Decalogue:    earliest,  63;    ethical, 

66 

DeGroot,  J.  J.  M.,  204,  222,  369 
Deification  of  Babylonian  kings, 

23 
Demeter,  251  f.,  272 


INDEX 


395 


Democritus,  253 

Demosthenes,  252 

Dendereh,  37 

"Deposit,"  doctrine  of,  324 

Deussen,  Paul,  366 

Deuteronomy,  69  f . 

Dhalla,  M.  N.,  366 

Diana,  271 

Di  Manes,  267 

Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  321 

Dionysos,  250,  272,  275 

Diorna,  Celtic  goddess,  291 

Di  penates,  267 

Dis,  272. 

Divination:  Babylonian,  30  f.; 
in  China,  220;  Etruscan  and 
Roman,  271 

Docetism,  320 

Doctrine:  of  Mohammed,  99  f.; 
of  Zoroaster,  125  f.;  of  Buddha, 
163  ff.;  of  Jainism,  175  f.;  of 
Confucius,  21 2  f.;  of  Lao-tze, 
213  f.;  of  Socrates,  257  f.;  of 
Plato,  258  f.;  of  Aristotle,  260  f.; 
of  the  Stoics,  261  f.;  of  Epi- 
curus, 263;  of  Christianity, 
32off. 

D6n,  British  goddess,  295 

Donar  (Thor),  Teutonic  god,  300 

Donatists,  325 

Douglas,  R.  K.,  222,  369 

Dowd,  J.,  9,  360 

Dravidians,  139  f. 

Driver,  S.  R.,  74,  364 

Druids,  296  f. 

Drummond,  J.,  365 

Druses,  no 

Dungi,  24 

Dutt,  R.  C.,  178,  179,  200,  368 

Dyaush  pitar,  146 

Dynasties,  Egyptian,  40!.,  44!, 
50  f. 

Dynasty  of  Babylon,  24 

Dyophysites,  323 


Ea,  Babylonian  god,  27;  in 
creation,  27;  imparts  knowl- 
edge, 28;  feared  man's  wisdom, 
29 

Eastern  churches,  323,  333 

Ebionites,  321 

Ecclesiastes,  82,  88 

Eckhardt,  Meister,  329 

Edda,  elder  or  poetic,  306; 
younger  or  prose,  306 

Eddy,  S.,  221 

Edfu,  37 

Edmunds,  A.  J.,  160,  172,  367 

Egypt,  36;  Upper  and  Lower,  39; 
united,  40;  empire  period  of, 
46  f. 

El-Amarna,    48 

Elephantine,  37 

Elijah,  65 

El-Kab,  37 

Elkasites,  321 

Elmore,  W.  T.,  368 

Elysian  fields,  6 

Emancipation,  Jewish,  93  f.,  96 

Emperor-worship,  277 

Enhor,  40 

Enki,  20,  21,  22,  27 

Enlil,  20,  21,  22,  27 

Enneads,  Egyptian,  42  f. 

Enoch,  Book  of,  313,  314 

Environment,  9 

Enzu,  23 

Eos,  242 

Ephesus,  Council  of,  323 

Epictetus,  278 

Epicureanism,  263;  in  Italy,  275  f . 

Epicurus,  263 

Erech,  19,  20,  22 

Eridu,  19,  20 

Erim,  19 

Ennan,  A.,  38,  52,  363 

Essenes,  85 

Etana,  29 


396 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Ethical  monotheism,  67 

Ethics:  Babylonian,  32;  Egyp- 
tian, 56;  Japanese,  231,  238  £.; 
Chinese,  238  f. 

Etruscans,  265  f.,  268;  influence 
on  Rome,  269  f.,  271 

Eucharist,  319,  327 

Evolution,  doctrine  of,  333,  336; 
of  idea  of  God,  335  f. 

Exodus  of  Israel,  62 

Ezekiel,  72 

Fa  Hien,  217 

Fairbanks,  A.,  370 

Fall  of  man,  333 

Faraday,  W.,  372 

Farnell,  L.  R.,  246,  248,  251,  264, 
370 

Fatimite  caliphate,  104 

Fausboll,  W.,  367 

Fayum,  37 

Feasts,  9  f.;  Roman,  268  f.;  Cel- 
tic, 296  f.;  Teutonic,  309 

Fetishism,  8 

Fionn  saga,  294  f. 

Fires,  sacred,  129 

Fisher,  G.  P.,  372 

Flood,  Babylonian  account  of,  28 

Fordicidia,  269 

Fowler,  H.  T.,  78,  364 

Fowler,  Ward,  267,  268,  270,  277, 
285,  370 

Fox,  George,  330 

Frank,  T.,  274 

Fravashi,  126,  135 

Frazer,  J.  G.,  9,  38,  360 

Freyr  (Sviagodh),  306 

Friedlander,  M.,  96,  365 

Friends,  the,  330 

Frigg  (Frija), Teutonic  goddess,  306 

Frija  (Frigg),  306 

Fullerton,  K.,  68,  365 

Future  life  in  Greek  thought,  251 


Gad,  tribe  of,  61 

Galatians,  Epistle  to,  316 

Garbe,  R.,  172,  190 

Gardiner,  A.  H.,  45 

Gathas,  120,  122  f. 

Gautama,  author  of  Institutes  of 
Sacred  Law,  178,  184 

Gautama,  founder  of  Buddhism, 
159  f-,  233,  332,  344  f.J  Me  of, 
i6of. 

Ge,  242,  246 

Geb,  42 

Gemara,  89  f. 

Genius,  267;  of  emperor,  278 

Geonim,  90,  96 

Germans,  299  f. 

Ghetto,  93,  96 

Giants,  309  f. 

Giles,  A.  H.,  202,  203,  369 

GUlen,  J.,  6,  360 

Gilman,  A.,  116,  365 

Gimil-Sin,  24 

Girsu,  19 

Glover,  T.  R.,  355,  371 

Gnosticism,  318  f. 

God  as  philosophical  Absolute, 
349  f- 

Gods:  in  general,  7  f.;  Baby- 
lonian, 20  f.;  multiplied  by 
epithets,  21;  Egyptian,  37  f.; 
Vedic,  144  f.;  Japanese,  226  f.; 
Greek,  246 f.;  Celtic,  290,  295  f.; 
Teutonic,  300,  306  f.;  caught 
in  the  meshes  of  the  universe, 
343  f- 

Golden  rule:  Confucian,  201,  211; 
Taoist,  216 

Goldziher,  I.,  116,  366 

Goliouth,  80 

Gomes,  E.  H.,  360 

Goodspeed,  G.  S.,  362 

Gordon,  G.  A.,  357,  373 

Gothic  cathedrals,  327 

Grannos,  Celtic  god,  291 


INDEX 


397 


Granth,  197 

Grassmann,  H.  G.,  151,  366 

Gray,  L.  H.,  137,  361,  364,  366, 
367,  368 

Greece,  243  f. 

Greek  culture  and  Christianity. 
321 

Greek  influence  on  Roman  reli- 
gion, 272  f. 

Greek  philosophy,  252!.,  257  f., 
275  f- 

Gregory,  J.  W.,  360 

Griffis,  W.  E.,  230,  234,  369 

Grimblot,  M.  P.,  159,  367 

Gudea,  23  f. 

Gula,  24 

Gummere,  F.  B.,  301,  371 

Gutium,  23 

Hadad,  23 
Haddon,  A.  C.,  360 
Hades,  6 
Haggai,  75 
Haoma,  122,  147 

Harford-Battersby,  G.,  74,  75,  364 
Har-khent-khenti,  37 
Harper,  R.  F.,  33,  34, 128,  362 
Harrison,  Jane  E.,  242,  245,  248, 

370 

Hartungen  Saga,  303 
Hastings,  James,  312,  368,  370, 

37i 

Hatch,  E.,  373 
Hathor,  37 
Haupt,  Paul,  364 
Hawes,  C.  H.  and  H.,  243,  245, 

264 
Heaven:     Vedic,    151;     Chinese 

worship  of,  207;  Chinese  belief 

in,     218,     219,     221;      among 

Japanese,  228 
Hebrews,     58!.;      formation     of 

nation,  60  f . 
Hebron,  64 


Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  331 

Hehn,  J.,  362 

Heimdallr,  306 

Hel,  6,  310 

Heliopolis,  37.    See  On 

Helios,  242 

Hell:     Mohammedan,    97,    too; 

Zoroastrian,   136;    Vedic,   151; 

Chinese  belief  in,  218,  219 
Hera,  247 
Heraclitus,  253 
Herbig,  G.,  371 
Hercules,  272 
Hereford,  R.  T.,  96,  364 
Hermes,  247  f.,  272 
Hermonthis,  49 
Hermopolis,  37 
Herodian,  131 
Herodotus,  52,  57,  128,  129 
Hershon,  96 
Herzl,  T.,  94  f .,  96 
Hesiod,  242,  249,  264 
Hezekiah,  68 
Hildebrand  Lay,  303 
Hillel,  86 

Hindu  reform,  197  f. 
Hindu  textbook  of  religion  and 

ethics,  368 

Hinduism,  178  ff.,  199 
Hirth,  F.,  202,  222,  369 
Hittites,  118 

Hoemle,  A.  F.  R.,  157,  367 
Hogarth,  D.  G.,  244 
Holiness  code,  74  f . 
Holtzmann,  Oscar,  372 
Homer,  248 
Hommel,  F.,  121 
Hopkins,  E.  W.,   176,  177,  187, 

200,  361,  367,  368 
Horton,  A.,  371 
Horus,  37,  39 
Hosea,  66,  67,  332 


398 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Howitt,  A.  W.,  4,  360 

Hrihor,  Egyptian  priest  and  king, 

So 

Hsiao  King,  206 
Hunter,  W.  W.,  157 
Hutchinson,  H.  N.,  360 
Hymns:    Babylonian,  31;    Egyp- 

tian, 36;  Vedic,  141 

Ibn  Ezra:   Abraham,  92;   Moses, 

92 

Ignatius  of  Antioch,  320 
Ikhnaton,  47  f. 
Iliad,  242,  247 

Images  of  gods  in  human  form,  40 
Incantation,  Babylonian,  16,  31 
Incantations,  191 
India,  139  f.;    its  history,  169!., 


Indra,  118,  138,  143  f.,  174,  192 

Ininni,  21 

Inquisition,  328 

Intercession,  32 

Ipuwer,  45,  56 

Iran,  117,  118 

Irenaeus,  324 

Isaiah,  66,  67,  68,  332;  second,  73; 
third,  75 

Ishtar,  18,  20;  identified  with 
star,  25;  goddess  of  Nineveh 
and  Arbela,  25;  war-goddess, 
25;  in  creation,  27;  descent  to 
underworld,  28,  43 

Isis,  42,  43,  281  f. 

Islam,  meaning  of,  99 

Ismailites,  no 

I  Tsin,  217 

Izanagi,  225,  229 

Izanami,  225,  229 

Jackson,  A.  V.  W.,  118,  123,  124, 

137,  366 

Jacobi,  H.,  175,  200 
Jainism,  175  f.,  346 


Jamnia,  88 

Janua,  267,  270 

Japan,  223  ff. 

Jastrow,  M.,  33,  34,  362,  363 

Jatakas,  159 

Jehovah.    See  Yahweh 

Jeremiah,  70  f.,  332 

Jeremias,  A.,  362 

Jerusalem,  64,  69,  100 

Jesus,  313  f.,  334,  355  f. 

Jethro,  62 

Jevons,  J.  B.,  12,  13,  15,  361 

Jewish  Christianity,  321 

Jews:  in  Persia,  80;  in  Egypt,  81 

Jezebel,  65 

Job,  80 

Jodo,  Japanese  sect,  235 

Jodo  Shin  Shu,  Japanese  sect,  235 

John  the  Baptist,  313,  319 

John,  Gospel  of,  318  f.,  356 

John,  I.  B.,  371 

Jones,  R.  M.,  373 

Josephus,  Flavius,  80,  131 

Josiah,  70 

Jowett,  B.,  242 

Judah,  tribe  of,  61 

Judaism,  76,  79  f.,  95,  96;    con- 

nections   with    Zoroastrianism, 

136  f. 

Judgment  day,  Zoroastrian,  135  f. 
Juno,  267,  270 
Jupiter,  268,  270 
Justin,  131 


Kabir,  96  f  . 

Kalidasa,  195 

Kami,  226,  228,  237,  240 

Kant,  Emanuel,  331 

Kapadia,  S.  A.,  366 

Kapila,  181 

Kapilavastu,  160 


INDEX 


399 


Karaites,  90  {.,  96 

Karma,  156,  164,  165 

Kassites,  125 

Keane^A.  H.,  360 

Keith,  A.  B.,  367,  368 

Kenites,  61 

Kent,  C.  F.,  364 

Kharejites,  108 

Khnum,  37 

Khons,  37 

Kimchi,  David,  93 

King,  I.,  361     . 

King,  L.  W.,  33,  34,  362 

Kingdom:  Old  Egyptian,  41,  51; 
Middle  Egyptian,  44 

Kingdom  of  God:  Jesus'  concep- 
tion of,  314;  as  the  perfect 
social  state,  333 

Kish,  20,  22 

Kittel,  R.,  364 

Knox,  G.  W.,  173,  227,  228,  232 
234,  235,  239,  241,  370 

Kohler,  K.,  365 

Koptos,  37 

Koran,  97,  101  f. 

Kore,  272 

Krishna,  188,  189  f.,  192,  193  f., 
200 

Kuan-yin,  goddess  of  mercy,  220 
Kugler,  F.  X.,  22 
Kutha,  22 
Kwang-tze,  216,  217 

Lacouperie,  J.  de,  202 
Lagash,  19,  20,  21,  22,  25 
Laity,  Buddhistic,  168 
Lama,  174 
Lane-Poole,  S.,  365 
Lang,  Andrew,  361 
Lanman,  C.  R.,  366 
Lao-tze,  210,  213,  347  f. 
Laralia,  268 
Lares,  267,  277 


Lamed,  A.,  372 

Law:  Jewish,  80  f.;  Moham- 
medan, 105  f. 

Leah  tribes,  60,  62 

Legge,  J.,  222,  369 

Leinster,  Book  of,  286 

Leontopolis,  37 

Levites,  72,  75 

Liber,  272 

Liberia,  272 

Life  after  death,  5;  in  Babylonia, 
28;  in  Egypt,  54;  among 
Hebrews,  76  f.;  Mohammedan, 
100;  Vedic,  152;  Celtic,  298; 
Teutonic,  310 

Lt  Kt,  201,  206,  207 

Lindsay,  T.  M.,  373 

Liver  divination,  271 

Llew,  Welsh  god,  295 

Lloyd,  A.,  370 

Llyr,  British  god,  295 

Locke,  John,  330  f. 

Lodge,  H.  C.,  157,  241,  369 

Loki,  306 

Lopez,  F.  V.,  360 

Ludlow,  J.  M.,  371 

Lug,  Irish  god,  295 

Lugal-erim,  Babylonian  god,  21 

Lugakaggisi,  Babylonian  king,  22 

Lugnasad,  Celtic  festival,  298 

Luke,  313,  315 

Luther,  Martin,  329,  330, 376 

Lyddeker,  R.,  360 

Mabinogion,  295 
Maccabean  revolt,  83  f. 
MacCulloch,  J.  A.,  286,  288,  290, 

291,   292,   296,   297,   298,  312, 

371 

Macdonald,  D.  B.,  113, 116,  365 
Macdonell,  A.  H.,  143,  151,  152, 

157,  186,  187,  191,  366 
McGiffert,  A.  C.,  373 


400 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Mackenzie,  D.  A.,  57,  362,  363 
MacLagan,  R.  C.,  294,  371 
Macnicol,  N.,  200,  368 
Magadha,  160,  161,  165,  169 
Magi,  129 
Magic,  13  f.;  Egyptian,  52;  Vedic, 

152 
Mahabhdrata,  152,  179,  186  f.,  188, 

189,  192 

Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  363 
Mahavira,  175  f.,  346 
Mahayana  Buddhism,   217,   219, 

349 

Maimonides,  92 
Malik  ibn  Anas,  106 
Malkatu,      Babylonian      water- 
goddess,  23 

Manasseh,  king  of  Judah,  69 
Manichaeans,  325 
Manu,  ordinances  of,    178,    184, 

185  f. 

Maponus,  Celtic  god,  291 
Marcion,  320 
Marcus  Aurelius,  278,  279 
Marduk,  Babylonian  god,  24,  26 

27 

Margoliouth,  D.  S.,  116,  365 
Mark,  315 
Marti,  K.,  78,  364 
Maruts,   Vedic   storm-gods,    138, 

148. 

Mathews,  S.,  334,  372 
Matthew,  315 
Mecca,  98,  99 
Medes,  119 
Media,  119 
Medina,  100 
Medina  caliphate,  101  f. 
Megasthenes,  188,  195 
Melkart,  65 
Memphis,  37,  40,  41 
Mena  (Menes),  40 
Mencius.  206,  211,  216 


Mendelssohn,  Moses,  93  f. 

Mendes,  49 

Menno,  Simons,  330 

Menziez,  A.,  361 

Mercury,  272 

Messiah:  Egyptian,  45;  Hebrew, 
67  f.;  Zoroastrian,  135;  Jesus' 
conception  of,  3i4f.;  Jewish 
Christians  accept  Jesus  as,  315; 
Paul  accepts  Jesus  as,  317 

Messianic  hope  in  Israel,  67 

Methodists,  331 

Meyer,  Eduard,  17 

Micah,  66 

Middle  Ages,  Christianity  in,  326, 
327  f. 

Midianite-Kenites,  61,  62 

Mimansa,  184 

Min,  Egyptian  god,  37 

Minerva,  270 

Ming  Ti,  217 

Minoan  religion,  244  f. 

Minoans,  243 

Mirza  Ali,  in 

Misanthrope,  an  Egyptian,  46 

Mishna,  88  f.,  96 

Missions:  Mohammedan,  105; 
Buddhistic,  170;  modern  Chris- 
tian, 331 

Mitanni,  118 

Mithra,  118, 121, 131, 133,  283  f. 

Mitra,  121,  138,  145,  148,  184,  192 

Modem  Christian  thought,  332  f. 

Mohammed,  98,  99,  100,  353 

Mohammedanism,  97  f.;  estimate 
of,  115  f.,  353  f. 

Mohammedans  under  Zoroas- 
trians,  132  f. 

Monier-Williams,  M.,  200,  368 

Monks,  Buddhistic,  166  f. 

Monophysites,  296 

Monotheism:  none  in  Babylonia, 
26;  in  Egypt,  47  f.;  Hebrew, 
67  f.,  71,  350  f.;  Mohammedan, 


INDEX 


401 


99,  353!.;  Zoroastrian,  125!., 
35  2  f.;  supposed  monotheism  in 
China,  205;  Christian,  332, 
355  f- 

Montefiore,  C.,  365 

Montgomery,  J.  A.,  81, 96, 361, 364 

Moore,  C.  H.,  370 

Moore,  E.  C.,  373 

Moore,  G.  F.,  34,  57, 133, 137, 157, 

177,  2OO,  222,  241,  285,  361,  364 

Morris,  M.,  361 

Moses,  60,  61,  62 

Moses  ibn  Ezra,  92 

Moulton,  J.  H.,  120, 128,  129, 137, 
366 

Muller,  F.  Max,  122, 365, 366, 367, 
368,  369 

Muller,  W.  Max,  364 

Muir,  Sir  William,  116,  365 

Mummified  animals,  49  f. 

Murray,  Sir  Gilbert,  246,  247,  248, 
249,  264,  370 

Mut,  Egyptian  goddess,  37 

Mutazelites,  104,  112 

Mystery  religions  in  Greece,  250  f.; 
in  Roman  empire,  279  f. 

Mysticism  of  Paul,  317 

Mystics,  Mohammedan,  114!. 

Myths:  their  nature,  2;  Baby- 
lonian, 27  f.;  Egyptian,  54; 
Celtic,  293  f.;  Teutonic,  303!. 

Nabu,  Babylonian  god,  24 
Nana  (Ishtar),  20,  22 
Nanak,  197 

Nannar,  god  of  Ur;  22,  24 
Naram-Sin,  Babylonian  king,  23 
Naville,  E.,  363 
Nazarenes,  321 
Nebuchadrezzar,  72 
Nehemiah,  72,  79 
Nekhbet,  Egyptian  deity,  37 
Neolithic,  i 
Neo-Platonism,  279 


Nephthys,  Egyptian  goddess,  42 

Neptune,  272 

Nergal,  Babylonian  god,  22 

Nerthus,  Teutonic  goddess,  306, 
308 

Neumann,  K.  E.,  367 

New  Testament  Canon,  formation 
of,  320 

Nibelungenlied,  303  f . 

Nicaea,  first  Council  of,  322; 
second  Council  of,  324 

Nichiren,  Japanese  sect,  236  f. 

Nicholson,  R.  A.,  116,  365 

Nidaba,  Babylonian  goddess,  23 

Nina,  Babylonian  city  and  god- 
dess, 19,  21,  25 

Nineteenth-century  expansion  of 
knowledge,  331 

Nineveh,  25 

Ningirsu,  Babylonian  god,  19,  21, 
25 

Ninib,  Babylonian  god,  25 

Ninkharsag,  Babylonian  goddess, 
21,  27 

Ninlil,  Babylonian  goddess,  21 

Nintu,  Babylonian  goddess,  27 

Nippur,  20,  22 

Nirvana,  164  f.,  173,  174 

Nisin,  Babylonian  city,  24 

Nitobe,  I.,  230,  231,  233,  238,  369 

Noble  Truths,  Buddhistic,  163  f. 

Nomes,  Egyptian,  37 

Norns,  307 

Nowack,  W.,  364 

Numa,  calendar  of,  268 

Nuns,  Buddhistic,  166  f.,  168 

Nusari,  109!. 

Nut,  Egyptian  goddess,  42 

Nutt,  A.,  371 

Nyaya,  184 

Cannes,  name  of  god  Ea,  28 
Odin  (Wodan),  Teutonic  god,  300 


402 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Oecumenical  Councils,  322  f. 
Ogmios,  Celtic  god,  290 
Oman,  J.  C.,  200,  368 
Omar  Khayyam,  343 
Omayyad  caliphate,  103 
Ombos,  37,  39 
Omens,  Babylonian,  30  f. 
On,  Egyptian  city,  41,  42,  49 
Opet,  Egyptian  goddess,  37 
Oral  law,  86 

Ormuzd  (Ahura  Mazda),  123 
Orphic  mysteries,  252 
Orr,  J.,  373 

Osiris,  37,  38,  40,  42, 43, 45, 49,  Si, 

54,  55,  281  f. 

Othman,  third  caliph,  102 
Outline  of  a  book  to  be  written  by 

students,  379  f. 

Pahlavi-texts,  119,  122 

Paleolithic,  i 

Pales,  269 

Palestine,  58  f. 

Palmer,  E.  H.,  365 

Pantheism,  341  f. 

Pantheon:  Babylonian,  19  f.; 
Egyptian,  39  f.,  42;  Vedic, 
144!.;  Greek,  242;  Celtic,  290; 
Teutonic,  300  f . 

Papyrus  Harris,  50 

Paradise:  Egyptian,  43;  Moham- 
medan, 97,  100;  Zoroastrian, 
136;  Celtic,  298!;  Teutonic, 
310 

Parilia,    269 

Pannenides,  253 

Pastoral  Epistles,  324 

Patanjali,  182 

Paton,  L.  B.,  34,  60,  78 

Patriarchal  narratives,  59 

Paul,  316  f.;  Judaism  in  tune  of, 
87;  mysticism  of,  317 

Payne,  E.  J.,  360 

Peasant,  the  eloquent,  45 


Pelagians,  325 
Persephone,  272 
Persia,  117  f. 
Persian  Gulf,  17,  19 
Peters,  J.  P.,  95,  364 
Petrie,  W.  M.  F.,  57,  339,  363 
Pharisees,  85 
Philo  Judeaus,  87,  96 
Philosophers:       Indian,      181  f.; 
Greek,  252  f.,  257  f.,  261 

Philosophy:  Indian,  181  f.;  Greek, 
252  f.,  257  f. 

Pillars:   Semitic,  60,  70;   Aegean, 

246,  247  f. 
Pindar,  254 
Pitakas,  Buddhistic  sacred  books, 

159 

Plato,  242,  258  f.;  279 
Plumtre,  E.  H.,  242 
Pluto,  272 
Pollux,  272 

Polydemonism,  204,  206 
Pomerium,  270,  282 
Pope:  asserts  authority  over  civil 

power,  326;  infallibility  of,  331 
Poseidon,  272 

Pragapati,  139  (same  as  Prajapati) 
Prajapati,  Vedic  creator,  148,  184 
Prayer  wheels,  Tibetan,  175 
Prayers:    Babylonian,  31;    Japa- 
nese, 231 
Priesthoods:     Babylonian,    29  f.; 

Egyptian,  51;   Hebrew,  75,  76; 

Zoroastrian,  129;    Indian,  154; 

Celtic,  296  f.;    Teutonic,  307  f. 
Primitive  peoples,  i 
Primitive  religions,  importance  of, 

14 
Prithivi,  Mother  Earth,  147 

Prophets,  Hebrew,  66  f. 
Proserpine,  272 
Protestantism,  331  f.,  333 
Proverbs,  82 
Psalter,  Hebrew,  80,  81,  84 


INDEX 


403 


Psychological  unity  of  man,  2 
Ptah,  Egyptian  god,  37,  40,  45 
Ptah-hotep,  precepts  of,  35,  46,  56 
Puberty  ceremonies,  10 
Punjab,  144 

Purgatory,  doctrine  of,  326 
Pushan,  Vedic  sun-god,  148 
Pyramid-texts,  35,  43 
Pythagoras,  253 

Quibell,  J.  E.,  339 

Rabbi  Akiba,  88  f. 

Rabbi  Judah,  the  Prince,  88 

Rachel  tribes,  60,  62,  64 

Rahula,  the  Buddha's  son,  166 

Rainey,  R.,  372 

Ram  Mohan  Ray,  197,  376 

Ramanuja,  183 

Ramayana,  191  f. 

Ramsay,  W.  M.,  87,  316 

Ramses  II,  king  of  Egypt,  49 

Rashi,  Jewish  scholar,  92 

Rawlinson,  George,  132,  137 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  121 

Rg,  Egyptian  sun-god,  42, 45, 55, 56 

Reactions  in  Christianity,  331 

Reform  Judaism,  94  f. 

Reformation,  the,  329  f. 

Religion:  universality  of,  3;  nature 
of,  4;  importance  of  primitive, 
14;  Babylonian  and  Assyrian, 
1 6  f.;  Egyptian,  35  f.;  Hebrew, 
oof.;  importance  of  Hebrew, 
77;  Persian  before  Zoroaster, 
121  f.;  Vedic,  i44f.;  Chinese: 
primitive,  205;  state,  206  f.; 
present,  219  f.;  Japanese,  primi- 
tive, 226;  of  Greece,  242  f.; 
Roman,  265  f.;  Celtic,  287  f.; 
Teutonic,  300  f. 

Resheph,  Syrian  god,  49 

Resurrection:  Jewish,  85;  Zoroas- 
trian,  135  f. 

Rhea,  242,  245 


Rhys,  John,  200,  291,  371 

Rig-Veda,  140,  141,  185 

Rimush,  Babylonian  king,  23 

Ripley,  W.  Z.,  360,  371 

Ritual,  Vedic,  149 

Robigalia,  269 

Robinson,  B.  W.,  334 

Rockhill,  W.  W.,  160,  367 

Rogers,  R.  W.,  33,  34,  68,  362 

Roman  church,  320,  325  f.,  331  f. 

Roman  people,  265  f. 

Roman  religion,  266  f.;  of  city- 
state,  268  f.;  influence  of  repub- 
lic on,  271  f.;  social  changes 
and,  272  f.;  early  empire  period, 
277  f.;  individualism  in,  278  f. 

Rome,  266  f. 

Rosenau,  W,  365 

Rouse,  W.  H.  D.,  370 

Rudra,  Indian  god,  148,  184,  188, 
194 

Rydberg,  V.,  371 

Sabatier,  A.,  372 

Sacrifice,    u  f.;    theories  of,    12; 

Egyptian,  51  f.;    Vedic,  149  f.; 

in    Mahdbhdrata,    i?8f.,    188; 

Vishnuite,  192;   Chinese,  207  f.; 

Japanese,  230  f.;   Celtic,  296  f.; 

Teutonic,  307  f. 
Sadducees,  85 
Saga:     Fionn,    294  f.;     German, 

303  f.;  Norse,  306 
Sakyas,  Indian  tribe,  160 
Salvation:  Vedic,  150;  in  Upani- 

shads,  156 
Samaritans,  81 
Sama-Veda,  141 
Samhain,  Celtic  festival,  297 
Samuel,  64 
Sangha,    the    Buddhistic    order, 

i66f. 

Sankhya  philosophy,  181  f. 
Sargon,  Babylonian  king,  22 
Sasanian  dynasty,  119,  131  f. 


404 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Savitar,  Vedic  god,  148 

Saxneat  (Saxnot),  Saxon  god,  305 

Scandinavians,  the,  306 

Schechem,  64 

Schools,  Babylonian,  30 

Schrader,  E.,  119 

Schwenkfeld,  Caspar,  330 

Scott,  E.  F.,  372 

Scott,  J.  G.,  361 

Secret  societies,  10 

Sects:       Mohammedan,      108  f., 

113  f.;        Buddhistic,       172  f.; 

Hindu,  180  f.,  184,  186  f.,  192, 

194;  Japanese,  233  f. 
Seelye,  Kate  Chambers,  366 
Sekhmet,  Egyptian  goddess,  56 
Semites,  17  f.,  19,  20 
Seneca,  278,  279 
Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  68, 

69,  70 

Serapeum,  49 

Serapis,  Egyptian  god,  51,  281  f. 
Servant  of  Yahweh,  74 
Set,  Egyptian  god,  37,  39,  42 
Seti  I,  Egyptian  king,  49 
Shamash,  Babylonian  god,  23 
Shammai,  86 
Shang-ti,  205,  220 
Shara,  Babylonian  god,  22 
Shema,  79 
Sheol,  6 
Shi  King,  206 
Shiites,  108 
Shiloh,  64 

Shingon  sect  (Japanese),  234  f. 
Shinto,  225,  229  f.,  238;  ritual,  223 
Shrines  of  Yahweh,  64 
Shu,  Egyptian  god,  37,  42 
Shu  King,  204,  205,  206 
Shukamuna,  Kassite  war-god,  25 
Shumway,  D.  B.,  371 
Sibylline  oracles,  272 
Sikhs,  196 


Simon,  the  Maccabee,  84 

Sin:    Babylonian   conception   of, 

31;    Chinese  view  of,  219;    no 

consciousness  of,  in  Japan,  228; 

Christian  view  of,  333 
Sin,  Babylonian  moon-god,  25 
Sir,  Babylonian  serpent  deity,  21 
Sirach,  82 
Sirius,  22 

Siut,  Egyptian  nome,  37 
Skepticism:  Egyptian,  46;  Roman, 

276 

Smith,  G.  A.,  59,  69,  78 
Smith,  G.  B.,  334 
Smith,  H.  P.,  364 
Smith,  V.  A.,  175,  196,  200,  367 
Smith,  W.  R.,  12,  15,  98,  362 
Sobk,  Egyptian  god,  37 
Social  organization:    influence  of, 

8  f.;  Vedic,  143  f.;  life  in  Japan, 

224f.;   changes  in  Greece,  250; 

in  Rome,  273  f. 
Socrates,  257  f.,  350 
Solomon,  65 

Soma,  intoxicating  drink,  122,  147 
Soma,  Vedic  god,  138,  145,  147, 

184,  192 

Song  of  Songs,  88 
Soothill,  W.  E.,  212,  217,  218,  220, 

221,  222,  369 

Sophocles,  255 

Soshyans,Zoroastrian  Messiah,  135 

Soul,  the,  4;  in  Egypt,  54;  exist- 
ence denied  by  Gautama,  164  f.; 
among  Celts,  288  f. 

Spanish  caliphate,  103  f. 

Spencer,  B.,  6,  360 

Spirits,  6  f.;  Hebrew,  77;  Chinese, 
204  f.;  Teutonic,  307 

Standards,  prehistoric  in  Egypt,  38 

Stark,  H.  A.,  157,  367 

State  religion  of  China,  206  f. 

Steindorf,  G.,  40,  54,  57,  363 

Stevens,  G.  B.,  372 

Stevenson,  Mrs.  S.,  177,  368 


INDEX 


405 


Stoicism,  261  f.;   in  Rome,  276  £., 

278  f. 

Stoics,  261  f. 
Stone  Age,  i 
Strabo,  131,  245 
Sumerians,  i7f.,  19,  20 
Sunnites,  109 
Surga,  Vedic  sun-god,  148 
Survivals,  influence  of,  337 
Suttas,  159 
Sviagodh  (Freyr),  306 
Swan-maidens,  307 
Synagogue,  84  f. 
Syria,  23,  84 

Taboo,  10 

Tacitus,  299,  300 

Talmud,  88,  90,  96 

Tammuz,  Babylonian  god,  19,  43 

Tanis,  Egyptian  city,  50 

Tao,  213  f.,  347  f. 

Too  Teh  King,  201,  213,  214,  215 

Taoism,  213  f.,  220 

Tauler,  John,  329 

Taurobolium,  280 

Teachings:  of  Zoroaster,  125  f.; 
of  Confucius,  209  f . ;  of  Lao-tze, 
213;  of  Jesus,  314  f. 

Tefnut,  Egyptian  goddess,  42 

Temples:  Babylonian,  29;  Egyp- 
tian, 50  f.;  Hebrew,  64  f.;  re- 
building of,  75 ;  Hindu,  196; 
Shinto,  230;  Teutonic,  307  f. 

Temptation:  of  Zoroaster,  124; 
of  Gautama,  162;  of  Jesus,  313  f. 

Tendai,  Japanese  sect,  233 

Tertullian,  325 

Teutons,  the,  299  f.;  and  Chris- 
tianity, 301  f. 

Thales,  253 

Thebes,  Egyptian  city,  37,  45,  48, 
49 

Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  323 

Theologians,  Mohammedan,  in  f. 

Thessalonians,  Epistles  to,  317 


Thietmar,  Danish  festival,  309 

This,  Egyptian  nome,  40 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  329 

Thomas  Aquinas,  328 

Thompson,  R.  C.,  363 

Thor  (Donar),  Teutonic  god,  300 

Thoth,  Egyptian  god,  37 

Thothmes  III,  Egyptian  king,  47 

Tiamat,  Babylonian  sea-dragon,  27 

Tcien  Fei,  220 

Tiglath-pileser  IV,  Assyrian  king, 

68 

Tigris- Euphrates  Valley,  17 
Timothy,  Epistles  to,  324 
Tiu  (Ziu,  Tyr),  Teutonic  god,  300 
Tobit,  book  of,  133 
Topics  for  further  study,  374  f. 
Totemism,  n,  37;  symbols,  60 
Toy,  C.  H.,  3,  6,  15,  37,  61,  361 
Tradition,  doctrine  of,  324  f. 
Transmigration  of  souls,  7,  155  f., 

190,  252,  260 
Trans-substantiation,  327 
Triad  of  gods:    first  Babylonian, 

24;     second    Babylonian,     25; 

third  Babylonian,  26;  Egyptian 

42;  Hindu,  195 
Trinity,  doctrine  of,  322  f.,  332, 

356  f. 

Tuatha  D6  Danann,  292  f. 
Tucker,  T.  G.,  283 
Tyr  (Tiu,  Ziu),  Teutonic  god,  300 

Umma,  Babylonian  city,  22 
Underworld,  5;    Babylonian,   28; 

Egyptian,     54;      Hebrew,     76; 

Vedic,     152;      Japanese,     228; 

Greek,  251  f. 

Unis,  king  of  Egypt,  35,  42,  338  f. 
Universality  of  religion,  3 
Upanishads,  142,  152,  154!.,  163, 

179,  181,  182,  185 
Ur:  Babylonian  city,  19;  dynasty 

of,  19,  22 
Ur-Bau,  Babylonian  ruler,  23 


406 


THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD 


Urkagina,  Babylonian  king,  22 
Uru-azagga,  Babylonian  city,i9, 21 
Ushas,  Vedic  Aurora,  146 
Vaisali,  Indian  town,  birthplace  of 

Vardhamana,   175;    Buddhistic 

council  at,  169 
Valentinus,  293 
Vallabhacaris,    Hindu    Vishnuite 

sect,  193 
Vallabhacarya,    founder    of    the 

Vallabhacaris  sect,  193 
Vardhamana,  founder  of  Jainism, 

also  called  Mahavira,  175,  346 
Varro,  276 
Varuna,  Vedic  god,  118,  138,  145, 

151,  152,  192 
Vata  or  Vayu,  Vedic  atmospheric 

god,  148 

Vedanta,  182,  198 
Vedas,  121,  140  f. 
Vendidad,  117,  119,  130 
Venus,  planet,  25 
Vesta,  267 
Victoria,  270 
Vimilia,  269 
Vishnu,  Vedic  god,  148, 188, 189  f., 

191,  192;  institutes  of,  192  f. 
Vishtaspa,  i24f. 
Vesp£rad,  120 
Vogelsang,  F.,  45 
Volcanic  theory  of  Yahweh,  61 

Wahabites,  114 
Walhalla,  310 
Walker,  W.,  372 
Walkyries,  307 
Wallis,  Louis,  364 
Ward,  W.  H.,  373 
Warren,  H.  C.,  367 
Webster,  H.,  10,  360 
Wenley,  R.  M.,  371 
Wep-wat,  Egyptian  god,  37 
Wesley,  John,  331 
Williams,  S.  W.,  222,  369 
Wilson,  E.,  369 


Winckler,  H.,  118 

Wissowa,  G.,  370 

Wodan  (Odin),  Teutonic  god,  300 

Workman,  H.  B.,  372 

Wright,  W.  C.,  253,  370 

Wto,  Egyptian  god,  37 

Wyckliffe,  John,  319,  320 

Xenophanes,  253 

Xenophon,  257 

Xerxes,  128 

Yahweh:  God  of  Israel,  58  f.; 
Kenite  god,  61;  agricultural 
god,  63 ;  God  of  all,  67 ;  dwelling- 
place  Zion,  69;  God  of  love,  71; 
servant  of,  74 

Yajur-Veda,  141 

Yama,  Vedic  god  of  underworld, 
152 

Yang,  Chinese  spirit,  204  f. 

Yashts,  part  of  Avesta,  ii9f., 
130;  Mihir- Yashts,  128 

Yasna,  part  of  Avesta,  117,  120 

Yasodhara,  wife  of  the  Buddha,  166 

Yggdrasil,  the  Norse  World-tree, 
378 

Yi  King,  206,  208 

Yin,  Chinese  spirit,  204 

Yoga,  182 

Yuan  Chwang,  117 

Yule-tide,  309 

Zamama,  Babylonian  god,  20,  22 

Zarathustra  (Zoroaster),  122,  352 

Zecheriah,  75 

Zeller,  E.,  259,  264 

Zen,  Japanese  sect,  236 

Zeno,  founder  of  Stoicism,  261  f. 

Zeus,  242,  245,  246,  247,  248,  255 

Zionism,  94,  96 

Ziu  (Tiu,  Tyr),  Teutonic  god,  300 

Zoroaster,  122  f.,  136  f.,  350,  352 

Zoroastrianism  117  f.,  136  f.,  352  f. 

Zwemer,  S.  M.,  08,  116 

Zwingli,  Ulrich,  329 


fo 
63 


A     000  889  770     4 


